Beyond Ethnicity : Consent and Descent in American Culture

Beyond Ethnicity : Consent and Descent in American Culture PDF Author: Werner Sollors Professor of American Literature and Afro-American Studies Harvard University
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198020724
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Nothing is "pure" in America, and, indeed, the rich ethnic mix that constitutes our society accounts for much of its amazing vitality. Werner Sollors's new book takes a wide-ranging look at the role of "ethnicity" in American literature and what that literature has said--and continues to say--about our diverse culture. Ethnic consciousness, he contends, is a constituent feature of modernism, not modernism's antithesis. Discussing works from every period of American history, Sollors focuses particularly on the tension between "descent" and "consent"--between the concern for one's racial, ethnic, and familial heritage and the conflicting desire to choose one's own destiny, even if that choice goes against one's heritage. Some of the stories Sollors examines are retellings of the biblical Exodus--stories in which Americans of the most diverse origins have painted their own histories as an escape from bondage or a search for a new Canaan. Other stories are "American-made" tales of melting-pot romance, which may either triumph in intermarriage, accompanied by new world symphonies, or end with the lovers' death. Still other stories concern voyages of self-discovery in which the hero attempts to steer a perilous course between stubborn traditionalism and total assimilation. And then there are the generational sagas, in which, as if by magic, the third generation emerges as the fulfillment of their forebears' dream. Citing examples that range from the writings of Cotton Mather to Liquid Sky (a "post-punk" science fiction film directed by a Russian emigre), Sollors shows how the creators of American culture have generally been attracted to what is most new and modern. About the Author: Werner Sollors is Chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University and the author of Amiri Baraka: The Quest for a Populist Modernism. A provocative and original look at "ethnicity" in American literature DTCovers stories from all periods of our nation's history DTRelates ethnic literature to the principle of literary modernism DT"Grave and hilarious, tender and merciless...The book performs a public service."-Quentin Anderson

Beyond Ethnicity

Beyond Ethnicity PDF Author: Werner Sollors
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190281510
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
Nothing is "pure" in America, and, indeed, the rich ethnic mix that constitutes our society accounts for much of its amazing vitality. Werner Sollors's new book takes a wide-ranging look at the role of "ethnicity" in American literature and what that literature has said--and continues to say--about our diverse culture. Ethnic consciousness, he contends, is a constituent feature of modernism, not modernism's antithesis. Discussing works from every period of American history, Sollors focuses particularly on the tension between "descent" and "consent"--between the concern for one's racial, ethnic, and familial heritage and the conflicting desire to choose one's own destiny, even if that choice goes against one's heritage. Some of the stories Sollors examines are retellings of the biblical Exodus--stories in which Americans of the most diverse origins have painted their own histories as an escape from bondage or a search for a new Canaan. Other stories are "American-made" tales of melting-pot romance, which may either triumph in intermarriage, accompanied by new world symphonies, or end with the lovers' death. Still other stories concern voyages of self-discovery in which the hero attempts to steer a perilous course between stubborn traditionalism and total assimilation. And then there are the generational sagas, in which, as if by magic, the third generation emerges as the fulfillment of their forebears' dream. Citing examples that range from the writings of Cotton Mather to Liquid Sky (a "post-punk" science fiction film directed by a Russian emigre), Sollors shows how the creators of American culture have generally been attracted to what is most new and modern. About the Author: Werner Sollors is Chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University and the author of Amiri Baraka: The Quest for a Populist Modernism. A provocative and original look at "ethnicity" in American literature BLCovers stories from all periods of our nation's history BLRelates ethnic literature to the principle of literary modernism BL"Grave and hilarious, tender and merciless...The book performs a public service."-Quentin Anderson

Beyond Ethnicity

Beyond Ethnicity PDF Author: Camilla Fojas
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824869885
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Written by scholars of various disciplines, the essays in this volume dig beneath the veneer of Hawai‘i’s myth as a melting pot paradise to uncover historical and complicated cross-racial dynamics. Race is not the primary paradigm through which Hawai‘i is understood. Instead, ethnic difference is celebrated as a sign of multicultural globalism that designates Hawai‘i as the crossroads of the Pacific. Racial inequality is disruptive to the tourist image of the islands. It ruptures the image of tolerance, diversity, and happiness upon which tourism, business, and so many other vested transnational interests in the islands are based. The contributors of this interdisciplinary volume reconsider Hawai‘i as a model of ethnic and multiracial harmony through the lens of race in their analysis of historical events, group relations and individual experiences, and humor, among other focal points. Beyond Ethnicity examines the dynamics between race, ethnicity, and indigeneity to challenge the primacy of ethnicity and cultural practices for examining difference in Hawai‘i while recognizing the significant role of settler colonialism. This original and thought-provoking volume reveals what a racial analysis illuminates about the current political configuration of the islands and, in doing so, challenges how we conceptualize race on the continent. Recognizing the ways that Native Hawaiians or Kānaka Maoli are impacted by shifting, violent, and hierarchical colonial structures that include racial inequalities, the editors and contributors explore questions of personhood and citizenship through language, land, labor, and embodiment. By admitting to these tensions and ambivalences, the editors set the pace and tempo of powerfully argued essays that engage with the various ways that Kānaka Maoli and the influx of differentially racialized settlers continue to shift the social, political, and cultural terrains of the Hawaiian Islands over time.

Beyond Colorblind

Beyond Colorblind PDF Author: Sarah Shin
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830888977
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
While society may try to be colorblind, we can’t ignore that God created us with our ethnic identities, and he made them for good. Ethnicity and evangelism specialist Sarah Shin reveals how our broken ethnic stories can be restored and redeemed, demonstrating God's power to others and bringing good news to the world. Discover how your ethnic story can be transformed for compelling witness and mission.

Beyond the Alamo

Beyond the Alamo PDF Author: Raúl A. Ramos
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458722635
Category : Mexican Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
This book is divided into two parts. Part 1 uses the first three chapters to examine 1821, taking stock of the multiple changes underway at independence. The chapters set up three social worlds coexisting in the region and affecting the development of the others....Part 2 follows the development of ethnicity and nationalism through Texas secessi...

Writing Beyond Race

Writing Beyond Race PDF Author: bell hooks
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415539145
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
What are the conditions needed for our nation to bridge cultural and racial divides? By "writing beyond race," noted cultural critic bell hooks models the constructive ways scholars, activists, and readers can challenge and change systems of domination. In the spirit of previous classics like Outlaw Culture and Reel to Real, this new collection of compelling essays interrogates contemporary cultural notions of race, gender, and class. From the films Precious and Crash to recent biographies of Malcolm X and Henrietta Lacks, hooks offers provocative insights into the way race is being talked about in this "post-racial" era.

Social Mobilization Beyond Ethnicity

Social Mobilization Beyond Ethnicity PDF Author: Chiara Milan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351174223
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
This book offers an in-depth investigation of the emergence and spread of social mobilizations that transcend ethnicity in societies violently divided along ethno-national lines. Using Bosnia Herzegovina as a case study, the book explores episodes of mobilization which have superseded ethno-nationalist cleavages. Bosnia Herzegovina emerged from the 1992–95 war brutally impoverished and deeply ethnically divided, representing a critical and strategic case for the examination and understanding of the dynamics of mobilization in such divided societies. Despite difficult circumstances for civic-based collective action, social mobilizations in the country have grown in size, number and intensity in recent years. Marked by citizen demand for accountable governance, responsive urbanism, and access to basic human rights, these protests have been driven by economic, social and political problems which cut across religious and ethnic divides. Examining the variation in spatial and social scale of contention, the book investigates movements’ formation, their organizational structures and networking strategies and advances research on divided societies and social movements. This volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Southeastern Europe and those examining political dissent, social movements and mobilization in divided societies, as well as practitioners in civil society, grassroots groups and political activists.

Reaching Beyond Race

Reaching Beyond Race PDF Author: Paul M. Sniderman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674145788
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
If white Americans could reveal what they really think about race, without the risk of appearing racist, what would they say? In this elegantly written and innovative book, Paul Sniderman and Edward Carmines illuminate aspects of white Americans' thinking about the politics of race previously hidden from sight. And in a thoughtful follow-up analysis, they point the way toward public policies that could gain wide support and reduce the gap between black and white Americans. Their discoveries will surprise pollsters and policymakers alike. The authors show that prejudice, although by no means gone, has lost its power to dominate the political thinking of white Americans. Concentrating on the new race-conscious agenda, they introduce a method of hidden measurement which reveals that liberals are just as angry over affirmative action as conservatives and that racial prejudice, while more common among conservatives, is more powerful in shaping the political thinking of liberals. They also find that the good will many whites express for blacks is not feigned but represents a genuine regard for blacks, which they will stand by even when given a perfectly acceptable excuse to respond negatively to blacks. More crucially, Sniderman and Carmines show that the current impasse over race can be overcome if we remember what we once knew. The strongest arguments in behalf of equality for black Americans reach beyond race to the moral principles that give the issue of race itself a moral claim on us.

Beyond Ethnicity : Consent and Descent in American Culture

Beyond Ethnicity : Consent and Descent in American Culture PDF Author: Werner Sollors Professor of American Literature and Afro-American Studies Harvard University
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198020724
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314

Get Book Here

Book Description
Nothing is "pure" in America, and, indeed, the rich ethnic mix that constitutes our society accounts for much of its amazing vitality. Werner Sollors's new book takes a wide-ranging look at the role of "ethnicity" in American literature and what that literature has said--and continues to say--about our diverse culture. Ethnic consciousness, he contends, is a constituent feature of modernism, not modernism's antithesis. Discussing works from every period of American history, Sollors focuses particularly on the tension between "descent" and "consent"--between the concern for one's racial, ethnic, and familial heritage and the conflicting desire to choose one's own destiny, even if that choice goes against one's heritage. Some of the stories Sollors examines are retellings of the biblical Exodus--stories in which Americans of the most diverse origins have painted their own histories as an escape from bondage or a search for a new Canaan. Other stories are "American-made" tales of melting-pot romance, which may either triumph in intermarriage, accompanied by new world symphonies, or end with the lovers' death. Still other stories concern voyages of self-discovery in which the hero attempts to steer a perilous course between stubborn traditionalism and total assimilation. And then there are the generational sagas, in which, as if by magic, the third generation emerges as the fulfillment of their forebears' dream. Citing examples that range from the writings of Cotton Mather to Liquid Sky (a "post-punk" science fiction film directed by a Russian emigre), Sollors shows how the creators of American culture have generally been attracted to what is most new and modern. About the Author: Werner Sollors is Chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University and the author of Amiri Baraka: The Quest for a Populist Modernism. A provocative and original look at "ethnicity" in American literature DTCovers stories from all periods of our nation's history DTRelates ethnic literature to the principle of literary modernism DT"Grave and hilarious, tender and merciless...The book performs a public service."-Quentin Anderson

Statehood Before and Beyond Ethnicity

Statehood Before and Beyond Ethnicity PDF Author: Linas Eriksonas
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9789052012919
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Today's world is a world of nation-states; few have survived since the early modern period, some have existed for three hundred years, most came into being during the second part of the last century. Yet the equation between the state and the nation does not go back far in history, despite the prevailing tendency to view the state as closely linked to ethnicity. To challenge the latter this book attempts to examine statehood separately from the concept of ethnicity; it asks what is non-ethnic about statehood by looking at 'statehood before and beyond ethnicity'. A non-ethnic statehood is analysed in two forms: as a historical phenomenon at the time of the emergence of the early modern state (Part One) and as a historical tradition which had been pursued by the nation-builders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Part Two). Instead of looking at great powers as traditional models of statehood, individual chapters focus on minor and less familiar states in Northern and Eastern Europe from the period c. 1600-2000, including Belgium, Bohemia, Greece, the Netherlands, Romania, Poland-Lithuania, Serbia and Montenegro, Sweden, Scotland and Transylvania.

Explorer Race and Beyond

Explorer Race and Beyond PDF Author: Robert Shapiro
Publisher: Light Technology Publishing
ISBN: 1622335406
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
In our continuing exploration of how creation works, we talk to Creator of Pure Feelings and Thoughts, the Liquid Domain, the Double-Diamond Portal, and the other 93 percent of the Explorer Race. We revisit the Friends of the Creator to discuss their origin and how they see the beyond; we finally reach the roots of the Explorer Race (us!) and find we are from a different source than our Creator and have a different goal; and we end up talking to All That Is!