ISBN:
9780813589329
,
9780813589336
Language:
English
Pages:
vii, 215 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als Sollors, Werner, author Challenges of diversity
DDC:
810.9/358
Keywords:
National characteristics, American, in literature
;
American literature History and criticism
;
Multiculturalism in literature
;
Ethnicity in literature
;
Race in literature
;
Immigrants in literature
;
USA
;
Literatur
;
Ethnische Identität
Abstract:
"What unites and what divides Americans as a nation? Who are we, and can we strike a balance between an emphasis on our divergent ethnic origins and what we have in common? Opening with a survey of American literature through the vantage point of ethnicity, Werner Sollors examines our evolving understanding of ourselves as an Anglo-American nation to a multicultural one and the key role writing has played in that process. Challenges of Diversity contains stories of American myths of arrival (pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, slave ships at Jamestown, steerage passengers at Ellis Island), the powerful rhetoric of egalitarian promise in the Declaration of Independence and the heterogeneous ends to which it has been put, and the recurring tropes of multiculturalism over time (e pluribus unum, melting pot, cultural pluralism). Sollors suggests that although the transformation of this settler country into a polyethnic and self-consciously multicultural nation may appear as a story of great progress toward the fulfillment of egalitarian ideals, deepening economic inequality actually exacerbates the divisions among Americans today"--
Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index
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