Beyond Ethnicity : Consent and Descent in American Culture
Title | Beyond Ethnicity : Consent and Descent in American Culture PDF eBook |
Author | Werner Sollors Professor of American Literature and Afro-American Studies Harvard University |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Total Pages | 314 |
Release | 1986-02-27 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0198020724 |
Nothing is "pure" in America, and, indeed, the rich ethnic mix that constitutes our society accounts for much of its amazing vitality. Werner Sollors's new book takes a wide-ranging look at the role of "ethnicity" in American literature and what that literature has said--and continues to say--about our diverse culture. Ethnic consciousness, he contends, is a constituent feature of modernism, not modernism's antithesis. Discussing works from every period of American history, Sollors focuses particularly on the tension between "descent" and "consent"--between the concern for one's racial, ethnic, and familial heritage and the conflicting desire to choose one's own destiny, even if that choice goes against one's heritage. Some of the stories Sollors examines are retellings of the biblical Exodus--stories in which Americans of the most diverse origins have painted their own histories as an escape from bondage or a search for a new Canaan. Other stories are "American-made" tales of melting-pot romance, which may either triumph in intermarriage, accompanied by new world symphonies, or end with the lovers' death. Still other stories concern voyages of self-discovery in which the hero attempts to steer a perilous course between stubborn traditionalism and total assimilation. And then there are the generational sagas, in which, as if by magic, the third generation emerges as the fulfillment of their forebears' dream. Citing examples that range from the writings of Cotton Mather to Liquid Sky (a "post-punk" science fiction film directed by a Russian emigre), Sollors shows how the creators of American culture have generally been attracted to what is most new and modern. About the Author: Werner Sollors is Chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University and the author of Amiri Baraka: The Quest for a Populist Modernism. A provocative and original look at "ethnicity" in American literature DTCovers stories from all periods of our nation's history DTRelates ethnic literature to the principle of literary modernism DT"Grave and hilarious, tender and merciless...The book performs a public service."-Quentin Anderson
Beyond Ethnicity
Title | Beyond Ethnicity PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 0 |
Release | 1988 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism
Title | Ethnic Pride, American Patriotism PDF eBook |
Author | June Granatir Alexander |
Publisher | Temple University Press |
Total Pages | 296 |
Release | 2008-11-20 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 1592137806 |
Creating a community that respected tradition but adapted to new circumstances.
Neither Black Nor White Yet Both
Title | Neither Black Nor White Yet Both PDF eBook |
Author | Werner Sollors |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Total Pages | 596 |
Release | 1999 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 9780674607804 |
Why can a "white" woman give birth to a "black" baby, while a "black" woman can never give birth to a "white" baby in the United States? What makes racial "passing" so different from social mobility? Why are interracial and incestuous relations often confused or conflated in literature, making "miscegenation" appear as if it were incest? Werner Sollors examines these questions and others in "Neither Black nor White yet Both," a fully researched investigation of literary works that, in the past, have been read more for a black-white contrast of "either-or" than for an interracial realm of "neither, nor, both, and in-between." From the origins of the term "race" to the cultural sources of the "Tragic Mulatto," and from the calculus of color to the retellings of various plots, Sollors examines what we know about race, analyzing recurrent motifs in scientific and legal works as well as in fiction, drama, and poetry. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
A Critical History of the New American Studies, 1970-1990
Title | A Critical History of the New American Studies, 1970-1990 PDF eBook |
Author | Günter H. Lenz |
Publisher | Dartmouth College Press |
Total Pages | 256 |
Release | 2016-12-06 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1512600040 |
Starting in 2005, Gunter H. Lenz began preparing a book-length exploration of the transformation of the field of American Studies in the crucial years between 1970 and 1990. As a commentator on, contributor to, and participant in the intellectual and institutional changes in his field, Lenz was well situated to offer a comprehensive and balanced interpretation of that seminal era. Building on essays he wrote while these changes were ongoing, he shows how the revolution in theory, the emergence of postmodern socioeconomic conditions, the increasing globalization of everyday life, and postcolonial responses to continuing and new forms of colonial domination had transformed American Studies as a discipline focused on the distinctive qualities of the United States to a field encompassing the many different "Americas" in the Western Hemisphere as well as how this complex region influenced and was interpreted by the rest of the world. In tracking the shift of American Studies from its exceptionalist bias to its unmanageable global responsibilities, Lenz shows the crucial roles played by the 1930s' Left in the U.S., the Frankfurt School in Germany and elsewhere between 1930 and 1960, Continental post-structuralism, neo-Marxism, and post-colonialism. Lenz's friends and colleagues, now his editors, present here his final backward glance at a critical period in American Studies and the birth of the Transnational.
Writing Between Cultures
Title | Writing Between Cultures PDF eBook |
Author | Holly E. Martin |
Publisher | McFarland |
Total Pages | 218 |
Release | 2011-10-14 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0786488492 |
Hybrid narrative forms are used frequently by authors exploring or living in multicultural societies as a method of reflecting multicultural lives. This timely book examines this rhetorical strategy, which permits an author to bridge cultures via literary technique. Strategies covered include multilingualism, magical realism, ironic humor, the use of mythological figures from the characters' heritage cultures, and the presentation of different perspectives on landscapes and other spaces as related to ethnicity. By investigating elements of ethnic literature comparatively, this book reaches beyond the boundaries of any one ethnic group, a vital quality in today's world.
Crossing Cultural Boundaries in East Asia and Beyond
Title | Crossing Cultural Boundaries in East Asia and Beyond PDF eBook |
Author | Reiko Maekawa |
Publisher | BRILL |
Total Pages | 222 |
Release | 2021-03-01 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 9004435506 |
The studies in this volume reveal the personal complexities and ambiguities of crossing borders and boundaries, with a focus on modern East Asia. The authors transcend geography-bound border and migration studies by moving beyond the barriers of national borders.