American Identities: Contemporary Multicultural Voices (A Bread Loaf Anthology) - Hardcover

Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0874516412 ISBN 13: 9780874516418

Publisher: Middlebury College Press, 1994

Synopsis

Contemporary commentators have observed that postmodern America is less a melting pot than a buffet table. In American Identities people of diverse ethnic, religious, social, gender, and sexual backgrounds "refuse to merge but insist on a multiplicity of well-maintained identities," editors Robert Pack and Jay Parini explain. This sixth volume in the popular Bread Loaf Anthology series gathers more than three dozen voices who testify that there is no single American Experience, but instead a multiplicity of experiences. These poems, stories, and essays describe in occasionally stark, sometimes humorous, and often moving terms what it means to be black and American, or gay and American, or Latino and American, or Jewish and American within this society.

About this title

Review

"Through poetry and personal essays and stories, 39 writers look at and beyond their own histories to themselves. Louise Erdrich relates an unexpected trauma for the Homecoming Queen. Gary Soto recalls a youth spent laboring in grape and cotton fields. These earnest voices will speak to thoughtful readers; recommended." --Library Journal

About the Author

College Professor of Literature at Middlebury College, ROBERT PACK's numerous books include Fathering the Map (1993) and The Long View (1991). JAY PARINI, Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury, is editor of The Columbia History of American Poetry (1993) and author of John Steinbeck: A Biography (1995) and many other books.

Edition details

• Publisher: Middlebury College Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0874516412
• ISBN 13: 9780874516418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 373
• Editor: Parini Jay