Using Frederick Douglass’s Autobiography to Promote Cultural Awareness

Abstract: This essay examines in what ways Frederick Douglass’s autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave can be used to promote cultural awareness in the English subject of Swedish upper secondary school. To explore this question, the essay uses the concepts from Byram et al's. model of intercultural language teaching to see what teaching possibilities exist that can promote cultural awareness in the text. The importance of raising cultural awareness is foregrounded because we live in a multicultural society and cultural awareness helps us break down cultural barriers more easily and understand one another better. The method used is a literature analysis where one theme and one character are analysed namely, the theme restriction of freedom and the character Frederick Douglass himself. Additionally, Louise Rosenblatt's view of reading is also used. The findings demonstrate that you can use the autobiography to promote cultural awareness by using intercultural language teaching and Rosenblatt’s view of reading with different ways of teaching.