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Author:

Román, Elda María, 1983- author.

Title:

Race and upward mobility : seeking, gatekeeping, and other class strategies in postwar America / Elda María Román.

Publisher:

Stanford University Press,

Copyright Date:

2018

Description:

xii, 296 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Subject:

American literature--History and criticism.--History and criticism.
African Americans in literature.
Mexican Americans in literature.
Social classes in literature.
Social mobility in literature.
Ethnicity in literature.
Race in literature.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-279) and index.

Contents:

Introduction -- Mortgaged status -- Class suicide -- Cultural betrayal -- Status panic -- Racial investments -- Switched allegiances -- Epilogue

Summary:

Race and Upward Mobility examines how class and ethnicity serve as forms of currency in American literature, affording people of color material and symbolic wages as they traverse class divisions. Identifying four recurring character types -- status seekers, conflicted artists, mediators, and gatekeepers -- that appear across genres, Elda Maria Roman traces how each models a distinct strategy for negotiating race and class. Her comparative analysis sheds light on the overlaps and misalignments, the shared narrative strategies, and the historical trajectories of Mexican American and African American texts, bringing both groups' works into sharper relief. Her study advances both a new approach to ethnic literary studies and a more nuanced understanding of the class-based complexities of racial identity.

Series:

Stanford studies in comparative race and ethnicity

ISBN:

1503602842
9781503602847
1503603784
9781503603783

OCLC:

(OCoLC)973879425

LCCN:

2017004007

Locations:

USUX851 -- Iowa State University - Parks Library (Ames)

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)