Format:
vii, 215 Seiten
,
Illustrationen
ISBN:
9780813589329
,
9780813589336
Content:
"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
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780813589350
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780813589343
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Online-Ausgabe Sollors, Werner, author Challenges of diversity New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, 2017
Language:
English
Subjects:
American Studies
,
Ethnology
Keywords:
USA
;
Literatur
;
Ethnische Identität
Author information:
Sollors, Werner 1943-
