1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793359403321

Autore

Franco Dean J. <1968->

Titolo

The border and the line : race, literature, and Los Angeles / / Dean J. Franco

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, California : , : Stanford University Press, , [2019]

©2019

ISBN

1-5036-0778-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 208 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Stanford studies in comparative race and ethnicity

Disciplina

810.9920693

Soggetti

American literature - Minority authors - History and criticism

Ethnic neighborhoods in literature

Ethnicity in literature

Race relations in literature

Race in literature

Los Angeles (Calif.) In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction : the borders and lines of social identities -- Redlining and realigning in East L.A. : the neighborhoods of Helena María Viramontes and Union de Vecinos -- The matter of the neighbor and the property of 'unmitigated blackness' -- 'My neighborhood' : private claims, public space, and Jewish Los Angeles -- Conclusion : love, space, and the grounds of comparative ethnic literature study.

Sommario/riassunto

Los Angeles is a city of borders and lines, from the freeways that transect its neighborhoods to streets like Pico Boulevard that slash across the city from the ocean to the heart of downtown, creating both ethnic enclaves and pathways for interracial connection. Examining neighborhoods in east, south central, and west L.A. - and their imaginative representation by Chicana, African American, and Jewish American writers - this book investigates the moral and political implications of negotiating space. The Border and the Line takes up the central conceit of "the neighbor" to consider how the geography of racial identification and interracial encounters are represented and even made possible by literary language. Dean J. Franco probes how race is



formed and transformed in literature and in everyday life, in the works of Helena María Viramontes, Paul Beatty, James Baldwin, and the writers of the Watts Writers Workshop. Exploring metaphor and metonymy, as well as economic and political circumstance, Franco identifies the potential for reconciliation in the figure of the neighbor, an identity that is grounded by geographical boundaries and which invites their crossing.