Regions of identity

Description:

Examining turn-of-the-century American women's fiction, the author argues that this writing played a crucial role in the production of a national fantasy of a unified American identity in the face of the racial, regional, ethnic, and sexual divisions of the period. Contributing to New Americanist perspectives of nation formation, the book shows that these writers are central to American literary discourses for reconfiguring the relationships among constituent regions in order to reconfigure the nation itself. Analyzing fiction by Sarah Orne Jewett, Florence Converse, Pauline Hopkins, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Kate Chopin, and Sui Sin Far, the book foregrounds the ways each writer's own location on the grid of American identities shapes her attempt to forge an inclusive narrative of America. This disparate group of writers - Northerners, Southerners, Californios, African Americans, Chinese Americans, Anglo Americans, heterosexuals, and lesbians - reflects the widespread nature of concerns over national identity and the importance of regions to representations of that identity.

subjects: Local color in literature,  History and criticism,  National characteristics, American, in literature,  Regionalism in literature,  Race in literature,  Women authors,  Women and literature,  American fiction,  Group identity in literature,  History,  Littérature régionale,  Écrits de femmes américains,  Roman américain,  Race dans la littérature,  Identité collective dans la littérature,  Américains dans la littérature,  Histoire,  Histoire et critique,  Femmes et littérature,  Couleur locale dans la littérature,  American fiction, women authors,  American fiction, history and criticism, 19th century,  American fiction, history and criticism, 20th century,  National characteristics in literature

Places: United States

Times: 20th century,  19th century