The melancholy of race / Anne Anlin Cheng.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cheng, Anne Anlin.

Series:

Race and American culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Asian American arts.

Psychological aspects.

Race relations.

United States--Race relations--Psychological aspects.

United States.

National characteristics, American.

Melancholy in literature.

Melancholy in art.

Minorities in literature.

Minorities in art.

American literature--Asian American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Asian American authors.

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature--African American authors.

Asian American arts--Psychological aspects.

African American arts--Psychological aspects.

African American arts.

Physical Description:

xii, 271 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford [England] ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.

Summary:

In this groundbreaking study Anne A. Cheng argues that we have to understand racial grief not only as the result of racism but also as a foundation for racial identity. The Melancholy of Race proposes that racial identification is itself already a melancholy act -- a social category that is imaginatively supported through a dynamic of loss and compensation. Drawing upon history, literature and theater -- the book ranges from Rodgers and Hammerstein to David Henry Whang, Brown v. Board of Education to Anne Deveare Smith, Ralph Ellison to Maxine Hong Kingston -- Cheng demonstrates that racial melancholia permeates our fantasies of citizenship, assimilation, and social health. A provocative look at a timely cultural dilemma, this study is essential reading for anyone interested in race studies, critical theory, or psychoanalysis.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-249) and index.

ISBN:

0195134036

OCLC:

43648538