Multiethnic literature and canon debates / edited by Mary Jo Bona and Irma Maini.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bona, Mary Jo.

Maini, Irma, 1958-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Minority authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

American literature.

Minorities--United States--Intellectual life.

Minorities.

Cultural pluralism in literature.

Ethnic groups in literature.

Minorities in literature.

Ethnicity in literature.

Canon (Literature).

Physical Description:

xiv, 242 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This groundbreaking collection reinvigorates the debate over the inclusion of multiethnic literature in the American literary canon. While multiethnic literature has earned a place in the curriculum on many large campuses, it is still a controversial topic at many others, as recent campus and corporate revivals of The Great Books attest. Many still perceive multiethnic literature as being governed by ideological and political issues, perpetuating a false distinction between highbrow "literary" texts and multiethnic works.Through historical overviews and textual analyses, the contributors not only argue for the aesthetic validity of multiethnic literature, but also examine the innovative ways in which multiethnic literature is taught and critiqued. The following questions are also addressed: Who and what determines literary value? What role do scholars, students, the reading public, book awards, and/or publishers play in affirming literary value? Taken together, these essays underscore the necessity for maintaining vibrant conversations about the place of multiethnic literature both inside and outside the academy.

Contents:

From the road not taken to the multi-lane highway: Melus, the journal / Veronica Makowsky

On the trail of the Chicana/o subject: literary texts and contexts in the formation of chicana/o studies / Aureliano Maria DeSoto

"A house made with stones/full of stories": anthologizing Native American literature / Kristin Czarnecki

"But is it great?": the question of the canon for Italian American women writers / Mary Jo Bona

Racial politics and the literary reception of Zora Neale Hurston's Their eyes were watching God / Stephen Spencer

De-centering the canon: understanding The great Gatsby as an ethnic novel / Joe Kraus

An exile's will to canon and its tension with ethnicity: Li-Young Lee / Wenying Xu

Canon-openers, book clubs, and middlebrow culture / June Dwyer

From the boardroom to cocktail parties: "great" books, multiethnic literature, and the production of the professional managerial class in the context of globalization / Sarika Chandra

It's just beginning: assessing the impact of the internet on U.S. multiethnic literature and the "canon" / Patricia Keefe Durso.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780791481752

0791481751

9781429411721

1429411724

OCLC:

75959548