1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910798698003321

Autore

Smith Andrea L.

Titolo

Rebuilding shattered worlds : creating community by voicing the past / / Andrea L. Smith and Anna Eisenstein

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lincoln, Nebraska ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Nebraska Press, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

0-8032-9943-5

0-8032-9945-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (209 p.)

Collana

Anthropology of Contemporary North America

Classificazione

SOC002010HIS036080

Disciplina

305.800974822

Soggetti

Anthropological linguistics - Pennsylvania - Easton (Northampton County)

Collective memory - Pennsylvania - Easton (Northampton County)

Easton (Northampton County, Pa.) Social conditions

Easton (Northampton County, Pa.) Ethnic relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Terminology and Transcription Conventions; 1. Ethnography of the Expelled; 2. The Language of Blight; 3. Narrating Diversity; 4. Voices from the Past; 5. The Material of Memory; 6. Nostalgia as Engine of Change; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

"An ethnography of the ways displaced residents remember the ethnic diversity of their neighborhood in a small city in eastern Pennsylvania destroyed in the name of urban renewal, where memories, linguistic patterns, and material artifacts continue to animate people's everyday lives"--

"Rebuilding Shattered Worlds explores the ways a demolished neighborhood in Easton, Pennsylvania, still resonates in the imaginations of displaced residents. Drawing on six years of ethnographic research, the authors highlight the intersecting languages of blight, race, and place as elderly interlocutors attempt to make sense of the world they lost when urban renewal initiatives razed "Syrian Town"--a densely packed neighborhood of Lebanese American, Italian



American, and African American residents.  This ethnography of remembering shows how former residents engage collective memory-making through their shared place, language, and class position within the larger cityscape. Demonstrating the creative power of linguistic resources, material traces, and absent spaces, Rebuilding Shattered Worlds brings together insights from linguistic anthropology and material studies, foregrounding the role language plays in signaling "pastness.""--