| A comparison of Jewish American and Chicano literature---two groups which would seem to have little in common---provides the focus of my study of ethnic American literature. My subject here is the broad question of how to read older, pre 1960's ethnic literature (generally written by so-called "white ethnics") as apart of the same body of literature as more current, more avowedly political ethnic literature by Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, and Latinos. Bringing together writing by what may be the prototypical assimilated immigrant group---namely Jewish Americans---with the literature and criticism of an ethnic group whose self-identity connotes resistance to assimilation---Chicanos---I attempt to resolve questions about the vitality of the category "ethnicity" for literature. How does ethnicity work? What are its themes? And what can the history and context of one ethnic group's literature say to that of another? My dissertation foregrounds the notion of "America" as an ever-changing, highly contingent idea in literature, and by the end I suggest that as "America" is the site of ethnic literature, so too is ethnicity constitutive for our collective imagining of "America.";Critical conceptions derived from Jewish literature---the theme of diaspora, representations of historical trauma, and social protest---are used to unpack Chicano literature. Likewise, theory generated in or by Chicano literature---issues of cultural hybridity, gender inflected identity, and postcoloniality---offers strong suggestions for re reading Jewish American literature. Comparing Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, Tony Kushner, and earlier depression era Jewish writers with Chicano writers such as Alejandro Morales, Helena Maria Viramontes, Arturo Islas and Cherrie Moraga, I find the two bodies of literature to be in fruitful conversation regarding the most important and difficult questions in American literature today. |
