The Invention of Ethnicity [Paperback]

This important new collection of interdisciplinary essays sets out to chart the cultural construction of ethnicity as embodied in American ethnic literature. Looking at a diverse set of texts, the contributors place the subject in broad historical and dynamic contexts, focusing on the larger systems within which ethnic distinctions emerge and obtain recognition. It provides a new critical framework for understanding not only ethnic literature, but also the underlying psychological, historical, social, and cultural forces. Table of Contents: On the Fourth of July in Sitka,IshmaelReed. Introduction: The Invention of Ethnicity,Werner Sollors. An American Writer,Richard Rodriguez. A Plea for Fictional Histories and Old-Time Jewesses ,Alide Cagidemetrio. Ethnicity as Festive Culture: Nineteenth-Century German-America on Parade,Kathleen Conzen. Defining the Race, 1890-1930,Judith Stein. Anzia Yezierska and the Making of an Ethnic American Self,Mary Dearborn. Deviant Girls and Dissatisfied Women: A Sociologist's Tale,Carla Cappeti. Ethnic Trilogies: A Genealogical and Generational Poetics,William Boelhower. Blood in the Market Place: The Business of Family in theGodfatherNarratives,Thomas Ferraro. Comping for Count Basie,Albert Murray. Is Ethnicity Obsolete,Ishmael Reed, Andrew Hope, Shawn Wong,andBob Callahan.

Sollors reminds us that the value of any social construction depends on how it is used, and these essays present cogent analyses of how our use of 'ethnicity' has evolved over the years....Deserves a reading by anyone who is involved in the creation, criticism and dissemination of American culture. --VIA: Voices in Italian Americana

The introduction alone makes this book significant. With both learning and keen insight, Sollors approaches ethnicity as a modern, self-conscious construct, l#É