There is an urgent need to recognize that American literature includes a body of diversified writings previously unacknowledged by most literary scholars and critics and that these writings are expressions of vital but neglected cultures within American society. The cultures and literatures of minority groups have been overlooked or under-represented in most school and college curricula. This volume offers suggestions for curriculum changes and consists of the following papers: (1) "Introduction," by Dexter Fisher; (2) "Minority Literature in the Service of Cultural Pluralism," by David Dorsey; (3) "Black Literature and the American Literary Mainstream," by J. Lee Greene; (4) "The Promise of Chicano Literature," by Raymund A. Paredes; (5) "The Socio-Political World of the Chicano: A Comparative Analysis of Social Scientific and Literary Perspectives," by Rudolph O. de la Garza and Rowena Rivera; (6) "We Have Met the Enemy--And He Is Us," by James Sledd; (7) "Black Dialect: A Cultural Shock," by Stephen D. Chernault; (8) "A Basic Writing Program at an Urban University," by Blanche Skurnick; (9) "Spanish Language Programs for Hispanic Minorities: Current Needs and Priorities," by Guadalupe Valdes Fallis; (10) "The Navajo College-Level-Literacy Program: A Holistic Approach to Language Development for the 'Outsider'," by Randall Ackley; (11) "Overcoming Obstacles to Curriculum Change in Foreign Languages," by Eunice Faber; (12) "Contemporary Puerto Rican Literature in Translation," by Maria Teresa Babin; (13) "Promoting Pluralism in the Public Schools," by Jermaine D. Arendt; (14) "Politics of the Outsider: Black Studies in the University, 1976," by Mary Helen Washington; (15) "Oral Culture and the Literate Mind," by Walter J. Ong; and (16) "The Concept of Marginality in Ethnopoetics," by Michel Benamou. (CFM)