Ethnic American Literature: An Encyclopedia for Students

摘要

The primary strength of this subject encyclopedia, reviewed here in its e-book version, will be found in its thoughtful entries covering literary works by and about the wide range of ethnic groups in America. A great deal of consideration has been put into defining exactly what is meant by the terms "multicultural" and "ethnic" in categorizing these works. In the introduction, the editor reminds us that the various peoples inhabiting North America were already enormously diverse long before the arrival of emigrants from the shores of Europe. In this volume, "ethnic" is defined to include a number of cultural signifiers shared within a given group, including such things as narratives and events; tropes; characters; geographical region; ideas about gender and sexuality; religious practices; and class barriers, to name a few.