Developing intercultural communicative competence through world literature

The practice of intercultural communication is as old as humankind, coming into existence the first-time people from different tribal cultures encountered one another and tried to communicate. History is filled with accounts of people endeavouring to learn other languages and understand different cultures. While the motives may be varied to include travel, trade, intellectual exchange, religious proselytization, economy, colonization or political subjugation. Rapid, affordable means of transportation have facilitated increased contact among cultures, giving rise to international economic interdependencies, transnational corporations and culturally diverse workforces. The number of intercultural marriages continues to rise and immigration is increasing unabated. These developments have created a requirement for communicative skills appropriate for life in a multicultural global village; regardless we remain at home, visit another country or sojourn abroad. Literature is the most important commodity for cultural industry. Cultural differences often lead to and cause miscommunication and conflict. Literature gives the knowledge that people need to have in order to function effectively in their social environment. Literature is most useful when interacting with another culture, a shared pattern of beliefs, attitudes, self-definition norms and values organized around them. Intercultural communicative competence is dependent on mutual knowledge of existing diversity. As a global citizen not only must we appreciate cultural diversity, we must learn from that diversity. Cultural difference is viewed from lens of one's own literature, but to understand and learn from another culture we must understand the literature of the culture and its impact on the forms of communication. The paper seeks to examine how literature provides us an insight into the underlying cultural values, beliefs and assumptions which actually shape the visible cultural manifestations. If individuals could attain higher degree of intercultural competence, they would presumably become better citizens, students, teachers, business people, and so forth. Society would be more peaceful, more productive, and become generally a more attractive place to live in. Individuals would be able to better understand others who are unlike themselves.