Challenges and strategies for intercultural communication: A case study on national and gender stereotypes in postmodern women literature

Abstract

The paper was aimed to investigate the problem of national and gender stereotypes’ influence on the choice of strategies for intercultural communication between ethnically or culturally diverse people. The case study took place in the course of trainings, for students, who left for abroad in the wake of the state of emergency, but continued their studies in the university online. The authors applied comparative literature analysis and sociocultural interpretation of the texts of the novels “Fear and Trembling” by Amelie Nothomb and “Good News from the Aral Sea” by Irena Karpa to explore what national and gender stereotypes had been reflected in postmodern women literature, as one of the forms of mass consciousness and sociocultural discourse embodiment. It was revealed that various societies possessed prejudices against foreigners no matter their educational or economic level, while the stereotypes concerning women were completely different in discovered environments; conflicts and failures in intercultural communication caused by stereotypical perception cannot be solved when people apply assimilation, opposition or subversion as communication strategies. Nevertheless, empathy, integration and transformation of stereotypical patterns of one culture to the foreign one could result in fruitful interaction and enable people’s adaptation to life in a foreign society.