The Invention of Ethnicity

by Werner Sollors (Editor)

This important new collection of interdisciplinary essays sets out to chart the cultural construction of "ethnicity" as embodied in American ethnic literature. Looking at a diverse set of texts, the contributors place the subject in broad historical and dynamic contexts, focusing on the larger systems within which ethnic distinctions emerge and obtain recognition. It provides a new critical framework for understanding not only ethnic literature, but also the underlying psychological, historical, social, and cultural forces. Table of On the Fourth of July in Sitka, Ishmael Reed . The Invention of Ethnicity, Werner Sollors . An American Writer, Richard Rodriguez . A Plea for Fictional Histories and Old-Time "Jewesses", Alide Cagidemetrio . Ethnicity as Festive Nineteenth-Century German-America on Parade, Kathleen Conzen . Defining the Race, 1890-1930, Judith Stein . Anzia Yezierska and the Making of an Ethnic American Self, Mary Dearborn . Deviant
Girls and Dissatisfied A Sociologist's Tale, Carla Cappeti . Ethnic A Genealogical and Generational Poetics, William Boelhower . Blood in the Market The Business of Family in the Godfather Narratives, Thomas Ferraro . Comping for Count Basie, Albert Murray . Is Ethnicity Obsolete, Ishmael Reed, Andrew Hope, Shawn Wong, and Bob Callahan .

Genres: Politics

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 9, 1989

About the author

Werner Sollors is a professor of Afro-American studies at Harvard. He was born in Germany and lives in the United States since 1978. He has been studying and writing about the history of American interracial relationships since 1986.

Reviews

[Osvaldo · Rating 2 out of 5]

While all concerned with explorations or readings of ethnicity in various works, these essays by a variety of authors struggle to cohere as a collection. The introduction is useful as an overview of how the term "invention" can be applied to ethnicity as a social construction that embeds itself into an ahistorical discourse of the natural, but doesn't necessarily provide anything new. Then again, this book is already over 20 years old.

[Cristina Gil · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those interested in definitions and the basics of ethnicity I recommend you read the Introduction (for the concept of invention of ethnicity) and "Is Ethnicity Obsolete?". These are in my opinion the best parts of of this book, the rest turns to particular cases on the most common ethnicities in the USA.