The (Un)Welcome Stranger

<p> This book explores the possibilities of intercultural training through literature especially as related to collegiate study abroad programs. It presents a behavioral analysis of American literary characters through the lens of Milton Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity which identifies sensitivity to cultural differences within a six-stage developmental continuum.</p><p> The literary characters studied in this work all undergo an early separation which forces them to experience and relate to different worldviews. <I>Moby Dick</I>'s Ishmael leaves land for an epic whaling adventure. Hester is forced to live on the outskirts of town in <I>The Scarlet Letter</I>. The nameless protagonist of <I>The Country of the Pointed Firs</I> leaves the city for the country. The title character of <I>The American</I> emigrates to Europe. Ellison's narrator in <I>Invisible Man</I> experiences a series of separations starting at his college acceptance. <I>For Whom the Bell Tolls</I>' Robert Jordan leaves his Montana teaching job to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The book tracks each character's progress along Bennett's continuum demonstrating how people--both real and fictional--can manifest intercultural sensitivity through exposure to different people places and experiences. The book concludes with a firsthand account of how the author's own students advanced along Bennett's continuum themselves following an intensive study of Ernest Hemingway's novels and a study abroad experience in Havana Cuba.</p>