Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-224) and index.
Contents:
Critical contexts. The hyphenated American in twentieth- and twenty-first century America / Annette Harris Powell -- Intersecting lives: critics and the literature of American multicultural identity / Jessica Boykin -- Sherman Alexie and the absolute truth of double-consciousness / Kathryn West -- Four American poets explore hybrid identity formation and familial relationships / Rickie-Ann Legleitner -- Critical readings. Legalized hearts: legal identity in Larry Kramer's The normal heart / Gad Guterman -- Unspoken histories and one-man museums: lingering trauma and disappearing dads in the work of Chang-rae Lee / Michael Gorman -- "She's left me her legacy nonetheless": boundaries and female connection in Cuban American women's literature / Jessica Labbé -- Race, ethnicity, and national identity in Paule Marshall's Brown girl, brownstones, or how the Barbadian becomes American / Joanna Davis-McElligatt -- "A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut": junk food and Bildungsroman in Bich Minh Nguyen's Stealing Buddha's dinner / Tina Powell -- Neither insider nor outside but both: multicultural identity in Edith Eaton's "Mrs. Spring Fragrance" and "The inferior woman" / Linda Trinh Moser -- Intimate relations: land and love in The descendants / Leanne P. Day -- Bridging borders: Leslie Marmon Silko's cross-cultural vision in the atomic age / Kyoko Matsunaga -- A tent of one's own: negotiating Mourning Dove's authorial identity / John C. Orr & Enid R. Spitz -- "All growth involves change, all change involves loss": modernism, mourning, and social change in Gish Jen's Mona in the promised land / Conor Picken.
Summary:
The cultural diversity of the United States makes it impossible to describe American identity as homogenous or monolithic. The sense of belonging to multiple cultures and its relationship to identity are central concerns in literary works by African, Native, Asian, Latino/a, and other ethnic Americans. While some prioritize one culture over another, others emphasize the space in between, to insist on a balance between the two, or to express a feeling of being in-between, or the inability to participate in either side, as so brilliantly evoked in Sui Sin Far's description: "I give my right hand to the Occidentals and my left to the Orientals, hoping that between them they will not utterly destroy the insignificant 'connecting link'". In multicultural America, identity can be complicated, confusing, even frustrating while at the same time inspiring new perspectives, creativity, and a rich source of pride. This volume features studies of works as diverse as Sherman Alexie's National Book Award-winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land, and the lesser known but equally powerful Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez. Also offered are essays exploring cultural and historical contexts including one by Annette Harris Powell on the changing politics of hyphenation in the United States and its literature over the course of the 20th century.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.