Visions and divisions : American immigration literature, 1870-1930 / edited and with an introduction by Tim Prchal and Tony Trigilio.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Prchal, Tim, 1958-

Trigilio, Tony, 1966-

Series:

Multi-ethnic literatures of the Americas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Immigrants' writings, American.

Immigrants' writings, American--History and criticism.

Emigration and immigration--Literary collections.

Emigration and immigration.

American literature--Minority authors.

American literature.

Immigrants--Literary collections.

Immigrants.

Ethnic groups--Literary collections.

Ethnic groups.

United States--Intellectual life.

United States.

Intellectual life.

Genre:

Literary collections.

Literature.

Physical Description:

xxi, 379 pages ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2008]

Summary:

For many years, America cherished its image as a Golden Door for the world's oppressed. But during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, mounting racial hostility along with new national legislation that imposed strict restrictions on immigration began to show the nation in a different light. The literature of this period reflects the controversy and uncertainty that abounded regarding the meaning of "American." Literary output participated in debates about restriction, assimilation, and whether the idea of the "Melting Pot" was worth preserving. Writers advocated-and also challenged-what emerged as a radical new way of understanding the nation's ethnic and racial identity: cultural pluralism.

From these debates came such novels as Willa Cather's My Antonia and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Henry James, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Carl Sandburg added to the diversity of viewpoints of native born Americans while equally divergent immigrant perspectives were represented by writers such as Anzia Yezierska, Kahlil Gibran, and Claude McKay. This anthology highlights the variety of ways in which literature participated in shaping the face of American immigration. The volume also includes an introduction, annotations, a timeline, and historical documents that contextualize the literature.

Contents:

Introduction: The Literature of the New Chill xiii

A Note on the Text xxi

Part I The Restriction/Open Door Debate 1

Text of the Chinese Exclusion Act 7

The New Colossus / Emma Lazarus 11

Unguarded Gates / Thomas Bailey Aldrich 12

Twelve Hundred More / Anonymous 14

John Chinaman in New York / Mark Twain 16

Poems of Angel Island: [Instead of remaining a citizen of China], [Being idle in the wooden building], [Four days before the Qiqiao Festival], [The young children do not yet know worry], Crude Poem Inspired by the Landscape, and [For one month I was imprisoned] / Anonymous 18

Songs of Gold Mountain: [At a moment of tremendous opportunity] and [Spring returns to the continent] / Anonymous 20

The Biography of a Chinaman / Lee Chew 21

Veronika and the Angelinos / Caspar Day 30

What Is an American? The Suicide of the Anglo-American / Honore Willsie 39

Don't Bite the Hand That's Feeding You / Thomas Hoier, Jimmie Morgan 47

The Promised Land / Lewis E. MacBrayne 49

The Americanization of Roll-Down Joe / James B. Connolly 57

Mother America / Onorio Ruotolo 65

Alma Mater: The Immigrant at Columbia / Ajan Syrian 67

Part II The Assimilation Debate 69

True Americanism / Theodore Roosevelt 75

Ellis Island / C. A. Price 85

The Alien / Henry Blake Fuller 86

Moses / Morris Abel Beer 90

Old China / Morris Abel Beer 91

Songs of Gold Mountain: [Since I left South China] / Anonymous 92

The Lie / Mary Antin 93

A Great Man / Adriana Spadoni 110

The Wisdom of the New / Sui Sin Far 119

The Foreigner / Amy Lowell 135

America / Claude McKay 138

Dead Are My People / Kahlil Gibran 139

A Simple Act of Piety / Achmed Abdullah 143

I Dreamt I Was a Donkey-Boy Again / Ameen Rihani 158

On Being Black / Eric Walrond 160

A Slavic Oklahoman / Edward A. Steiner 164

Part III The Melting Pot Debate 171

Americanization / Joseph Stybr 177

The Melting Pot / Charlotte Perkins Gilman 180

The Argentines, the Portuguese, and the Greeks / Arthur M. Swanstrom, Carey Morgan 181

Sweet Burning Incense / Jeanette Dailey 183

Salvatore Schneider-A Story of New York / Ernest Poole 190

Uncle Wellington's Wives / Charles W. Chesnutt 199

The Apostate of Chego-Chegg / Abraham Cahan 224

Maggie's Minstrel / Florence Converse 239

The Alien in the Melting Pot / Frederick J. Haskin 250

Chinaman, Laundryman / H. T. Tsiang 251

Rickshaw Boy / H. T. Tsiang 254

A Yellow Man and a White / Elanor Gates 257

The Old Lamp / Catalina Paez 268

Happiness / Carl Sandburg 277

Part IV The Cultural Pluralism Debate 279

Democracy Versus the Melting-Pot: A Study of American Nationality / Horace M. Kallen 284

Trans-National America / Randolph Bourne 306

Foreign Country / Dmytro Zakharchuk 320

Paderewski / Dorothy Dudley 321

A Polish Girl / Max Michelson 322

The Island of Desire / Robert Haven Schauffler 323

The Greenhorn in America / Maria Moravsky 332

Songs of Gold Mountain: [Husband: his foolishness is second to none], [Husband: so dumb, second to none], [American ways are very extreme] / Anonymous 340

Unconverted / Bruno Lessing 342

Kalaun, the Elephant Trainer / Margherita Arlina Hamm 346

The Tooth of Antar / Lucille Baldwin Van Slyke 355

H.R.H. The Prince of Hester Street / Myra Kelly 364.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 377-379).

ISBN:

9780813542331

0813542332

9780813542348

0813542340

OCLC:

132582996