Pratt - Contact Zone

Mary Louise Pratt focuses on the contact zone in her essay, “Arts of the Contact Zone”. She seems to make the “underlying assumption” that the contact zone is not only a necessary part of everyday living but also something that brings contrast into everyone’s lives. From the contact zone, new ideas are spread, as well as cultures and languages. Pratt discussed “language being seen as living in ‘speech communities’”. People are able to communicate and share ideas between one another. Without these “speech communities” that are present in everyday life, people would have trouble spreading cultures, languages, and their ideas to one another.

This contact zone is so important because it contains such a huge concept of every human being’s life, whether they are young or old. Thoughts, messages, information and feelings are being communicated. We commonly exchange these ideas through speaking, writing, and behavior. Without these speech communities in this contact zone, Pratt is showing us how impossible life would be to get through.