American Ethnic Literature

1
American Ethnic Literature

• World Literature 2
• Fall 2005

2
American Literature

• The canon
• Often seen as predominantly European-American
• Authorized by intellectual and academic
  establishment
• But theres more to a nations literature than
  meets the eye

3
America is multicultural so is its literature

• Remember our discussion on African literature
• According to Ngugi wa Thiongo
• there can be multiple literary traditions that
  can coalesce into a global literary tradition
• The many enhance each other, teach each other,
  learn from each other

4
Some American Authors and their Cultural
Backgrounds

• Naomi Shihab NyeArab-American
• Andrew Peynetsa, N. Scott MomadayNative American
• Amy Tan Chinese-American
• William Saroyan Armenian-American
• Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou African-American
• Vicki Xiong, Mai Neng Moua Hmong American
• Edwidge Danticat Haitian-American
• Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee Indian-American
• Cristina Garcia Cuban-American
• Chaim Potok American Jewish stories

5
Identity

• Identity is a fundamental issue in much American
  minority literature
• Contact between ethnic identity and American
  identity concepts home country vs. new
  country
• concept of contact zone
• Issues of fitting in belonging
• Search for an authentic place and existence

6
Jimmy Santiago Baca

• http//jimmysantiagobaca.com
• Modern American Poetry Jimmy Santiago Baca
• Baca on Poemhunter.com
• mestizoNative American as well as Hispanic
  background
• Rough early life
• Abandoned as a child
• 6.5 years in the joint--max. security prison in
  AZ
• BA from U of New Mexico in 1984 PhD in 2003

7
Importance of language to JSB

• language, the vowels, the consonants, the
  syllables all became a sort of pyre which the
  past was placed on, and burned in the flames of
  language.
• Language as
• Freedom
• Re-creator (or, as JSB says, de-creator)
• Medium of forging reality through poetry