Vikings of the Midwest: Place, culture, and ethnicity in Norwegian-American literature, 1870--1940

Although immigration is one of the defining elements of American history and ideology, texts written in the United States in languages other than English have been overlooked within American literary studies, as have the related categories of immigrant, ethnic, and regional writing and publishing. This dissertation addresses the need for studies in multilingual American literature by examining the concept of home or Vesterheimen (literally, "the western home") in Norwegian-American literature. I argue that ethnic writers use the notion of home to claim and/or criticize American values and to narrate individual and collective identities---in essence, to write themselves into American literature and culture. Hence these "hyphenated" American authors are united in the common imaginative project of creating a home and history in the United States.;My project examines Vesterheimen in three main contexts: place, community, and culture. The first part of the dissertation focuses on Norwegian-American print culture as a dynamic force in shaping and promoting ethnic consciousness. The first and second chapters provide case studies on Augsburg Publishing House and one of its feature publications, the Christmas annual Jul i Vesterheimen. I reveal the ways in which Augsburg connects reading practices to class, culture, and citizenship. I also contend that Augsburg and Jul i Vesterheimen attempt to construct ethnic identity, create an historical legacy, and write Norwegian-Americans into the nation as Americans of distinction.;The second part of the dissertation examines some of the major themes and issues introduced in the early chapters, especially literary portrayals of place and community in Vesterheimen, via close readings of selected works of Norwegian-American literature. The third chapter considers notions of rootedness and displacement. I argue that place forms a center of meaning in the texts as writers use literature to convey place identity and articulate their attachment to homelands in Norway and America. The fourth chapter considers the struggle between cultural preservation and assimilation in the Norwegian-American community. Ultimately, I explore the dynamic and sometimes conflicted work of Norwegian-American literature as writers negotiate, strategically and skillfully, a home in America.