1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910828805603321

Titolo

Multiethnic literature and canon debates [[electronic resource] /] / edited by Mary Jo Bona and Irma Maini

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Albany, : State University of New York Press, c2006

ISBN

0-7914-8175-1

1-4294-1172-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

xiv, 242 p

Altri autori (Persone)

BonaMary Jo

MainiIrma <1958->

Disciplina

810.9/920693

Soggetti

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

Minorities - United States - Intellectual life

Cultural pluralism in literature

Ethnic groups in literature

Minorities in literature

Ethnicity in literature

Canon (Literature)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

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.