Ends of Assimilation: The Formation of Chicano Literature

ISBN-13: 9780190210113 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 288 str.

John Alba Cutler

Opis

Ends of Assimilation examines how Chicano literature imagines the conditions and costs of cultural change, arguing that its thematic preoccupation with assimilation illuminates the function of literature. John Alba Cutler shows how mid-century sociologists advanced a model of assimilation that ignored the interlinking of race, gender, and sexuality and characterized American culture as homogeneous, stable, and exceptional. He demonstrates how Chicano literary works from the postwar period to the present understand culture as dynamic and self-consciously promote literature as a medium for influencing the direction of cultural change. With original analyses of works by canonical and noncanonical writers--from Americo Paredes, Sandra Cisneros, and Jimmy Santiago Baca to Estela Portillo Trambley, Alfredo Vea, and Patricia Santana--Ends of Assimilation demands that we reevaluate assimilation, literature, and the very language we use to talk about culture.

Recenzje

In Ends of Assimilation, John Alba Cutler compellingly rethinks the history of Chicana/o literature by bringing it into conversation with assimilation sociology, a heretofore neglected critical task. Every chapter is filled with deft, nuanced interpretations that made me rethink what I know about the classics of Chicana/o literature as well as more contemporary works. In just one monograph, Cutler has reshaped the history of Chicana/o literature. A must read!

O autorze

John Alba Cutler is Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern University.