『아니타와 나』 읽기:영국의 다문화주의와 인종주의의 문제

Reading Anita and Me:The Problem of British Multiculturalism and Racism

In the genre of multicultural children’s literature, Anita and Me gives an insight into traditional Indian culture and describes an immigrant’s longing to assimilate and become part of her new society. Meena Kumar, an Indian immigrant, longs to be a white girl, imitating Anita Rutter who is a “passport to acceptance” into white society. However, Meena ends up realizing the relationship between ‘Anita and me’ is one of condescension and deception, not acceptance, which reflects on a wider scale the problems of Britain’s multiculturalism. Multiculturalism, by definition, embraces cultural diversity without any prejudice against minority cultures, accepting all cultures as equal. However, right from the start, the multicultural policies advocated by the British government have been ambivalent towards immigrants, as demonstrated by the contradictory enactment of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 and the Race Relations Act of 1965. Multicultural literature, as an educational tool, tries to appreciate or give a voice to the marginalized and silenced minorities. However, multicultural literature can sometimes fall victim to hackneyed stereotypes and find itself reproducing, instead of improving, present social inequalities. Anita and Me tries to overcome the limits of multicultural literature by representing and then satirizing the stereotypes of, or subverting the romanticization of Indian culture. As it does so, it reflects on the problem of multiculturalism and warns about white supremacy or racism hidden behind a condescending and familiar mask.