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Abstract
This book challenges the boundaries of postcolonial theory. Focusing on American literature, it examines how America's own imperial history has shaped the literature that has emerged from America, from Native American, Latino, Black and Asian-American writers. They contrast this with postcolonial literature from countries whose history has been shaped by American colonialism, from Canada, Central America and the Caribbean to Hawaii, Indonesia and Vietnam.
It explores questions about national identity and multiculturalism: why, for instance, is a Native writer categorised within 'American literature' if writing on one side of the border, but as 'Canadian' and 'postcolonial' if writing on the other?
This is a challenging collection that raises questions not only about the boundaries of postcolonial theory, but also about ethnicity and multiculturalism, and the impact of immigration and assimilation.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contents | v | ||
| Introduction: American Literature and Post-colonial Theory | 1 | ||
| Part 1 Ethnic Literature and Post-colonialism | 13 | ||
| 1. Indigenous Literatures and Postcolonial Theories: Reading from Comparative Frames | 15 | ||
| Part 2 Post-colonialism at Home | 29 | ||
| 2. “Going Into a Whole Different Country”: Postcolonial 'Nation\"-hood in Native American Literature | 31 | ||
| 3. Origin Story: On Being a White Native American(ist) | 51 | ||
| 4. Counter-Discursive Strategies in Contemporary Chicana Writting | 65 | ||
| 5. “At Least One Negro Everywhere”: African American Travel Writing | 77 | ||
| 6. Unsettling Asian American Literature: When More than America is in the Heart | 92 | ||
| 7. Forging a Postcolonial Identity: Women of Chinese Ancestry Writing in English | 111 | ||
| 8. Border Crossings: Filipino American Literature in the United States | 122 | ||
| 9. Reading the Literatures of Hawai’i Under an \"Americanist\" Rubric | 135 | ||
| Part 3 Post-colonialism in the Border Regions | 149 | ||
| 10. Writing Migrations: The Place(s) of U.S. Puerto Rican Literature | 151 | ||
| 11. Diasporic Disconnections: Insurrection and Forgetfulness in Contemporary Haitian and Latin-Caribbean Women's Literature | 167 | ||
| 12. Reclaiming Maps and Metaphors: Canadian First Nations and Narratives of Place | 184 | ||
| 13. Thomas King and Contemporary Indigenous Identities | 195 | ||
| Part 4 American Post-colonialism at Home and Abroad | 207 | ||
| 14. Vietnamese and Vietnamese American Literature in a Postcolonial Context | 209 | ||
| 15. Politics, Pleasure, and Intertextuality in Contemporary Southeast Asian Women's Writing | 222 | ||
| 16. U.S. and US: American Literatures of Immigration and Assimilation | 238 | ||
| List of Contributors | 249 | ||
| Index | 253 |