ISABELLA THOBURN COLLEGE

LUCKNOW
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
SESSION-2021-2022
PAPER-205 AMERICAN LITERATURE
TOPIC- EXPLAIN THE FOLLOWING:-
MULTI ETHNIC LITERATURE
NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE
ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
JEWISH LITERATURE
CHICANO LITERATURE

SUBMITTED TO-DR.
ABRAHAM VARGHESE
NAME- VAISHNAVI
SINGH
CLASS- M.A. 1 SEM-2
ROLLNO- E/21/17
UNI.ROLLNO-
2110385480047
Multi Ethnic Literature

MELUS, a prestigious and rigorous journal in the field of multi-ethnic literature of

the United States, has been a vital resource for scholarship and teaching for more
than thirty years. Published quarterly, MELUS illuminates the national,
international, and transnational contexts of U.S. ethnic literature. Articles
in MELUS also engage newly emerging art forms such as graphic narrative and
internet blogs, as well as multi-ethnic film, history, and culture. By including
interviews with well established authors such as Maxine Hong Kingston and
Richard Rodriguez, as well as more recent writers such as Junot Díaz, Cynthia
Kadohata, and Diana Abu-Jaber, MELUS plays a pivotal role in the field of U.S.
Ethnic Literature and is an indispensable resource for students, teachers, and
scholars.

Native American Literature

Native American literature is literature, both oral and written, produced by Native

Americans in what is now the United States (as distinct from First Nations writers
in Canada), from pre-Columbian times through to today. Famous authors
include N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Simon Ortiz, Louise
Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor, Joy Harjo, Sherman Alexie, D'Arcy McNickle, James
Welch, Charles Eastman, Mourning Dove, Zitkala-Sa, John Rollin Ridge, Lynn
Riggs, Diane Glancy, Hanay Geiogamah, William Apess, Samson Occom, et al.
Importantly, it is not "a" literature, but a set of literatures, since every tribe has its
own cultural traditions. Since the 1960s, it has also become a significant field
of literary studies, with academic journals, departments, and conferences devoted
to the subject
Native American literatures come out of a rich set of oral traditions from before
European contact and/or the later adoption of European writing practices. Oral
traditions include not only narrative story-telling, but also the songs, chants, and
poetry used for rituals and ceremonies. Many of these stories and songs were
transcribed by white anthropologists, but often with significant conflict with the
tribes and often with significant misinterpretation and/or mistranslation.[1]

Early literature
Many early Native American writers were political and/or autobiographical, which
was often also political in that it was meant to persuade readers to push for better
treatment of Native Americans. Samson Occom (Mohegan) was a Christian
preacher who wrote not only his autobiography, A Short Narrative of My Life, but
also many hymns. William Apess (Pequot) wrote his autobiography, A Son of the
Forest, as well as a public lecture/eulogy of King Philip. Sarah
Winnemucca (Paiute) wrote about her tribe's first interactions with European
Americans in Life Among the Paiutes, and John Rollin Ridge (Cherokee) wrote
what is considered the first novel by a Native American, The Life and Adventures
of Joaquín Murieta, about the infamous California bandit.
In the early 1900s, as white American audiences became interested in reading
about the lives and cultures of Native Americans, Native American writers began
transcribing the stories of their cultures, such as Charles Eastman's Old Indian
Days and Mourning Dove's Coyote Tales. Others began to write fiction, for
example, Mourning Dove's novel Cogewea and D'Arcy McNickle's The
Surrounded. Other novelists include John Joseph Mathews and John Milton
Oskison. Perhaps the best known Native American work from this period is Green
Grow the Lilacs, a play by Cherokee author Lynn Riggs that became the basis for
the musical Oklahoma! Many of these authors blended autobiography, traditional
stories, fiction, and essays, as can be seen in Zitkala-Sa's (Dakota) American
Indian Stories.

Native American Renaissance

The term "Native American Renaissance" was coined in 1983 by Kenneth
Lincoln[2] to describe the flowering of literary work by Native American writers in
the late 1960s through the 1970s and into the 1980s. The focal point for the
"arrival" of Native American literature as a significant literary event came with the
first Pulitzer Prize awarded to a Native author, N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) for his
novel House Made of Dawn.
The 1970s saw important fiction by James Welch (Blackfeet and A-aninin), Leslie
Marmon Silko (Laguna), and Gerald Vizenor (Chippewa), and poetry by Joy
Harjo (Muscogee), Simon J. Ortiz (Acoma), and Wendy Rose (Hopi/Miwok).
Many authors have done significant work in both genres, such as Joseph
Bruchac (Abenaki).
The 1980s saw many of the writers listed above continuing to produce new
literature. New voices included Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe), Paula Gunn
Allen (Laguna), Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), Michael Dorris, and Luci
Tapahonso (Navajo).
The 1990s introduced several works of poetry and of prose fiction by
Spokane/Coeur D'Alene author Sherman Alexie. Chickasaw author Linda
Hogan's Mean Spirit was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[3]
Asian American Literature

Asian American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by

writers of Asian descent. Asian American literature became a category during the
1970s but didn't see a direct impact in viewership until later in the 1970s. Perhaps
the earliest references to Asian American literature appeared with David Hsin-fu
Wand's Asian American Heritage: An Anthology of Prose and Poetry, published in
1974. One of the earlier pieces of Asian American literature produced
by Combined Asian American Resources Project (CARP) was Aiiieeeee! An
Anthology of Asian-American Writers (1974). This anthology collected staples of
long-forgotten Asian American literature and criticized the lack of visibility of this
literature. This anthology brought to light the necessity of visibility and criticism of
Asian American literature; with visibility came recognition of new literature.
Elaine Kim's seminal book of criticism, Asian American Literature: An
Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context,[2] was published in 1982 and
was the first critical book on the topic.
Since then, the field of Asian American literature and of Asian American literary
criticism has grown remarkably. Numerous authors produce literary and critical
work used, but defining "Asian American literature" remains a troublesome task.
Most critics who have written about Asian American literature implicitly or
explicitly define it as being written by Asian Americans, and usually about Asian
Americans. This definition poses a number of problems that are an ongoing source
of discussion for Asian American literary critics: Who is an Asian American? Is
"America" only the United States, or does it include the rest of the Americas? If an
Asian American writes about characters who are not Asian American, is this Asian
American literature? If someone who is not Asian American writes about Asian
Americans, is this Asian American literature? The fluidity of ethnicity and race can
play a major role in culture and identity.
Common themes in Asian American literature include race, culture, and finding a
sense of identity. While these topics can be subjective, some of the pinpointed
ideas tie into gender, sexuality, age, establishing traditional and adaptive culture,
and Western racism towards Asians.
Long-standing traditions have played a major role in shaping the future of Asian
Americans. Some literature touches upon the effects of traditional Asian culture on
Asian Americans living in a more liberal country. The mindset induced as a result
of this juxtaposition of cultures creates some extreme cognitive dissonance,
particularly among women of Asian descent.
Authors also touch upon the lack of visibility and criticism of Asian American
literature. Asian American writers were prominent before the 1970s, but as touched
upon in Aiiieeeee!, their history is lacking. One of the questions is why Asian
American literature was never exposed or taken seriously. It is possible that racism
played a strong role in the perception of Asian authors in the United States and
Asian Americans in general, but it is safe to assume there is not one single answer.
Throughout the 1990s there was a growing amount of Asian American queer
writings. (Merle Woo (1941), Willyce Kim (1946), Russell Leong (1950), Kitty
Tsui (1952), Dwight Okita (1958), Norman Wong (1963), Tim Liu (1965), Chay
Yew (1965) and Justin Chin (1969).) These authors interrogate
the intersections between gender, sexuality, race and cultural traditions. They
experience fragility due to both their ethnicity and their gender, or sexual
orientation, but the "fragile status of their families’ economic success in ethnically
hostile Asian environments seems to me to have more to do with their emigration
and compounded alienations than most of the authors acknowledge.
Jewish Literature

Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works

written in Jewish languages on various themes, and literary works in any language
written by Jewish writers. Ancient Jewish literature includes Biblical
literature and rabbinic literature. Medieval Jewish literature includes not only
rabbinic literature but also ethical literature, philosophical literature, mystical
literature, various other forms of prose including history and fiction, and various
forms of poetry of both religious and secular varieties. The production of Jewish
literature has flowered with the modern emergence of secular Jewish culture.
Modern Jewish literature has included Yiddish literature, Judeo-Tat
literature, Ladino literature, Hebrew literature (especially Israeli literature),
and Jewish American literature.

Medieval Jewish literature

Prominent examples of medieval Jewish fiction included:

 Sefer ha-Ma'asiyyot, by Nissim b. Jacob b. Nissim ibn Shahin of Kairouan,

written in Arabic, a book of fables based on aggadic legends.
 Sefer Sha'ashu'im, by Joseph Ibn Zabara (12th century), a story combining
folktales, epigrams, and passages of philosophy and science.
 Ben ha-Melekh ve-ha-Nazir, by Abraham b. Samuel ha-Levi Ibn Ḥasdai, based
on an Indian tale based on the life of Buddha.
 Meshal ha-Kadmoni, by Isaac ibn Sahula (13th century),
combining aggadah with original stories
 Mishlei Shu'alim ("Fox Fables"), by Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan,
Hebrew fables which resemble Aesop's fables.
Poetry
Liturgical Jewish poetry (Piyyut) flourished in the Byzantine Palestine in the
seventh and eighth centuries with the writings of Yose ben Yose, Yanai,
and Eleazar Kalir.
Later Spanish, Provençal, and Italian poets wrote both religious and secular poems.
Particularly prominent poets were Solomon ibn Gabirol and Yehuda Halevi.
Little writing by Jewish women survives from this period. One Arabic stanza is
attributed to the seventh-century Sarah of Yemen, who may have been Jewish; one
stanza in Hebrew by the wife of Dunash ben Labrat survives from the tenth
century; and three poems in Arabic attributed to the Andalusian
woman Qasmuna survive from the twelfth. The first female Jewish poet to write
poetry in German was Rachel Akerman (1522–1544), who wrote a poem titled
"Geheimniss des Hofes" (The Mystery of the Courts), in which she described the
intrigues of courtiers.[4] A female Jewish poet writing in Yiddish during the same
period was Rebecca bat Meir Tiktiner, author of a poem about Simchat Torah in
forty couplets.
Most medieval Hebrew poetry was mono-rhymed with
quantitative metre influenced by the style of Jewish poets from fallen Al-Andalus.
One noted exception are two passages from Sefer Hakhmoni by Shabbethai
Donnolo (sometimes classified as rhymed prose "saj" according to
the prosodic classifications borrowed from Arabic tradition) because they are not
quantitatively metered.

Other medieval Jewish literature

Medieval Jewish literature also includes:

 Jewish philosophical literature

 mystical (Kabbalistic) literature
 musar literature, ethical literature dealing with virtues and vices
 Halakhic literature
 Commentaries on the Bible

Modern Jewish literature

Modern Jews continued to write standard forms of rabbinic literature: Jewish
philosophical literature, mystical (Kabbalistic) literature, musar (ethical)
literature, halakhic literature, and commentaries on the Bible about the king
himself.
The modern era also saw the creation of what is generally known as "modern
Jewish literature," discussed here. Modern Jewish literature emerged with the
Hebrew literature of the Haskalah and broke with religious traditions about
literature. Therefore, it can be distinguished from rabbinic literature which is
distinctly religious in character.[7] Modern Jewish literature was a unique Jewish
literature which often also contributed to the national literatures of many of the
countries in which Jews lived.
Chicano Literature
Chicano literature, or Mexican-American literature, refers to literature written
by Chicanos in the United States. Although its origins can be traced back to the
sixteenth century, the bulk of Chicano literature dates from after the 1848 United
States annexation of large parts of Mexico in the wake of the Mexican–American
War. Today, this genre includes a vibrant and diverse set of narratives, prompting
critics to describe it as providing "a new awareness of the historical and cultural
independence of both northern and southern American hemispheres

Definition and dynamics

Rudolfo Anaya, Chicano author, educator born in 1937 in Pantura, New Mexico
and published Bless Me Ultima in 1972, which's adapted to film in 2013.

The definition of Chicano or Mexican-American encompasses both Mexicans who

have moved to the United States and U.S.-born people of Mexican ancestry. The
latter group includes people who have lived in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and
parts of California before the United States annexed these areas and who lived
different experiences than those south of the annexation line. Composed mostly of
Spanish-speaking Catholics living in a predominantly English-speaking Protestant
country, Chicanos have the status of a linguistic and cultural minority.
Chicano literature also has a racial dynamic; some Mexican-Americans define
themselves as mestizo, people with a mixture of primarily indigenous and
European heritage, while others fit within the Hispano demographics of people
with primarily European heritage. African-descended Mexicans also contribute to
this field, with the last governor of Alta California, Pío Pico, having African
heritage. There are also people who do not fit easily in these definitions, such
as Josefina Niggli, whose parents were Euro-Americans living in Mexico when she
was born.
Chicano or Mexican-American writing includes those works in which writers'
sense of ethnic identity or chicanismo animates their work fundamentally, often
through the presentation of Chicano characters, cultural situations, and speech
patterns.
Chicano" refers to a person of Mexican descent in North America, compared to
"Latino", which refers to those with cultural ties to Latin America more broadly.
Cultural roots are important to Chicanos, many of whom celebrate historical
practices such as the Day of the Dead. Chicanos often adopted a dual culture in the
20th century; they speak English and adapt to U.S. culture, but are influenced by
their Mexican heritage. They have been targeted racially since 1848 and often
responded by rejecting the label "brown" throughout history when being "white"
was dominant.
Some scholars argue that the origins of Chicano literature can be traced back to the
sixteenth century, starting with the chronicle written by Spanish adventurer Álvar
Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who published an account in 1542 of his long journey in
what is now the U.S. Southwest, where he lived with various indigenous groups,
learning their language and customs. Literary critics Harold Augenbraum and
Margarite Fernández Olmos argue that Cabeza de Vaca's "metamorphosis into a
being neither European nor Indian, a cultural hybrid created by the American
experience, converts the explorer into a symbolic precursor of the
Chicano/a". Scholar Lee Dowling adds that Inca Garcilaso de la Vega also
contributed to early Chicano literature with his expeditionary work La Florida.

Sandra Cisneros experiments with literary forms which she attributes to growing

up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her
with unique stories to tell.

Chicano literature (and, more generally, the Chicano identity) is viewed as starting
after the Mexican–American War and the subsequent 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo. In the treaty, Mexico ceded over half of its territory, the now the U.S.
Southwest, including California, Nevada, Utah, and much of Arizona, Colorado,
and New Mexico. Tens of thousands of former Mexican citizens became U.S.
citizens. Literary critic Ramón Saldívar points out, "Unlike many other ethnic
immigrants to the United States... but like the Native Americans, Mexican-
Americans became an ethnic minority through the direct conquest of their
homelands." This change in legal status was not immediately accompanied by a
change in culture or language. Over time, however, these Mexican-Americans or
Chicanos developed a unique culture that belonged fully neither to the U.S. nor to
Mexico. In Saldívar's words, "Mexican-American culture after 1848 developed in
the social interstices between Mexican and American cultural spheres, making that
new cultural life patently a product of both but also different in decisive ways from
each." The Chicano culture, as expressed in literature as well as other cultural
practices, has been further shaped by migrations of Mexicans to the U.S.
throughout subsequent eras.
Con Safos Literary Magazine was the first independent Chicano Literary journal
and published in Los Angeles in the 60's and 70's.
Historically, literature has faced gender gaps, and Chicano literature is no
exception, with more male writers recorded than women. "Machismo", a sense of
overt masculinity, is often cited as part of the reason that Chicana voices have
historically been silenced. During El Movimiento, in which Chicanos were fighting
for social and civil rights in the United States, several Chicana writers began to
write, forming an important part of the movement.  By 1900, according to critic
Raymund Paredes, "Mexican American literature had emerged as a distinctive part
of the literary culture of the United States." Paredes highlights the significance of
Josephina Niggli's 1945 novel, Mexican Village, which was "the first literary work
by a Mexican American to reach a general American audience." Many different
genres of Chicano literature, including narrative, poetry, and drama, now have a
wide popular and critical presence.

Notable Chicano writers

A photograph of Helena Maria Viramontes 2006 an American fiction writer
and professor of English at Cornell University.

Jovita Gonzales (1904–1983) was a Mexican-American born in Roma, Texas who

graduated from the University of Texas with a master's degree in history. A
selection of books she has written includes, Dew on the Thorn, The Women Who
Lost Her Soul and Other Stories, Life Along the Border, and Caballero. Gonzales
was educated from an early age and was exposed to fictional writing. She grew up
with a sense of pride for being Mexican-American, which led her to dedicate
herself to writing about Texan-American stories. 
Americo Paredes (September 3, 1915 – May 5, 1999) was a Mexican-American
author born in Brownsville, Texas who authored texts such as With a Pistol in his
Hand and George Washington Gomez which focused on border life between the
United States and Mexico, particularly within the Rio Grande region of South
Texas during the early twentieth century. These works shared the common themes
which permeate Chicano literature, and thus have been identified as being proto-
Chicano works of literature. Throughout his long career as an author, journalist,
folklorist, and professor, Paredes brought increased attention to Mexican-
American's heritage and unique struggles, and is widely regarded as being one of
the most influential precursors to contemporary Chicano literature.
Tomas Rivera (born December 22, 1935) is a Mexican-American author born in
Crystal City, Texas. After high school, he earned a degree in Southwest Texas
State University and a Ph.D. at University of Oklahoma. He wrote Migrant Earth
also titled And the Earth Did Not Devour Him y no se lo trago la tierra 1971. He
received the prestigious Premio Quinto Sol Award. The Earth Did Not Devour
Him received recognition as a film adaptation directed by Severo Perez in 1994.
Rivera is a founder of Chicano literature.
Rudolfo Anaya (born October 30, 1937) was a Mexican-American author born in
Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Following high school, he earned a B.A. in English and
American Literature from the University of New Mexico in 1963. He went on to
complete two master's degrees at the University of New Mexico, one in 1968 for
English and another in 1972 for guidance and counseling. Best known for his 1972
novel Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya is considered one of the founders of the canon of
contemporary Chicano literature.
Stephanie Elizondo Griest (born June 6, 1974) is a Chicana author and activist
from South Texas. Her books include Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow,
Beijing, and Havana, 100 Places Every Woman Should Go , and Mexican Enough:
My Life Between the Borderlines (Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster,
2008). She has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Latina
Magazine, and numerous Travelers' Tales anthologies.
Luis Alberto Urrea (born August 20, 1955) is a Mexican-American author born in
Tijuana, Mexico. His father was from New York, and his mother was from the
state of Sinaloa in Mexico.

Themes
Diana Gabaldon signing books at the 2017 Phoenix Comicon

Chicano literature tends to focus on themes of identity, discrimination, and border

culture, with an emphasis on validating Mexican-American culture or Chicano
culture in the United States. It is often associated with the social justice and
cultural claims of the Chicano movement.
Other notable themes include the experience of migration and living between two
languages. Chicano literature may be written in either English or Spanish or even a
combination of the two often referred to as Spanglish. Chicano culture has often
been politically focused on the question of the border, and how Chicanos straddle
or cross that border.
The contributions of feminists such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga have
been particularly pronounced over the past couple of decades. Anzaldúa, in
particular, brought more attention to view the topic of the border in ways beyond
the physical. Her focus primarily dealt with sexual and cultural oppression, while
Moraga made significant contributions to addressing queer and lesbian identities
among Chicano/a people.
Border literature
Traveling across the border is becoming an important topic as the Mexican
population is growing in regions close to the border, such as Texas and California.
Mexican migration to the U.S. is causing an increase in literature for labor workers
and studies of the Mexican-American Culture. The motivational force of Mexicans
traveling across the border is viewed as an opportunity to increase their capital and
expand their opportunities. Mexican-Americans near the border struggle with their
identity because they are mostly considered immigrants, although some may be
U.S. citizens. Mexicans view crossing the border as an opportunity to improve
their living conditions for themselves and their families although they have had a
strong bond to their Mexican nationality and would look at those that became U.S.
citizens as traitors. Before the 1930s, there was little Mexican-American literature
published. Mexicans would stay in their homeland and not seek the U.S. as an
escape. After the U.S.-Mexican war, Mexicans saw themselves as being denied
their civil rights while having U.S. citizenship; they found themselves receiving
much lower pay than White labor who disregarded their skill level.
Dual-cultural identity
Danzy Senna centering on issues of gender, race and motherhood.

Stephanie Elizondo Griest takes a neutral standpoint where she is acting as a third

person in her books. She explores what it's like to have a Mexican culture in an
American society. Even though Chicanos are bound to the Mexican culture, it
seems as if they are distant from Mexico itself because of the U.S.-Mexico border,
thus creating a mixture of culture for the people of the region with both U.S. and
Mexican culture. Mexican culture is known for being mixed, which is noted by
Mexican Natives as being important to the survival of Mexican culture. Mexicans
living near the border keep their cultural identity because they live close to Mexico
despite being blocked by the U.S.-Mexico border. Another factor that helps
Mexican culture endure in the U.S. is people migrating from Mexico to the U.S.
and bringing their culture with them, as well as influencing family members. Their
culture is thought to be assimilated by later generations of immigrants to the U.S.,
but younger generations develop an interest in their cultural roots. People born in
the U.S. to immigrant parents face an assimilation process where they try to adapt
to their communities, but still feel like they're considered foreign.

Chica lit
Gwendolyn Zepeda Houston's first Poet Laureate

In 2003, author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez published The Dirty Girls Social Club,

a chick lit novel aimed at Latina women. Valdes-Rodriguez was dubbed the
godmother of Chica lit by Seattle Times magazine Unlike other works of Chicano
literature, Chica lit targeted middle-class women like Valdes-Rodriguez, who
described herself as "an Ivy League graduate, middle-class person who just lives a
regular American life—you know, born and raised here, don't speak all that much
Spanish". Michele Serros was a Latina writer drawing on her own life experiences,
much of her works gave voice to the complexities of lives straddling two
worlds: working-class Mexican-American heritage and southern California pop
culture. She described how she never quite fit in through poems and prose that
were both poignant and hilarious. Pam Muñoz Ryan has written over forty books
for young people, including picture books, early readers, and middle grade and
young adult novels. Her novel Esperanza Rising  was commissioned as a play by
the Minneapolis Children's Theatre and has been performed in venues around the
US including the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and the Cutler Majestic Theatre in
Boston. Angela Morales Her essay "The Girls in My Town" appeared in The Best
American Essays, 2013, edited by Cheryl Strayed, and her essay "Bloodyfeathers,
R.I.P." appeared as notable essay in Best American Essays 2015.

Major figures
Rodolfo Acuña an American historian, professor emeritus at California State
University, Northridge, and a scholar of Chicano studies.

Major figures in Chicano literature include Ana Castillo, Carlos Muñoz, Jr., Sabine

R. Ulibarri, Rudolfo Anaya, Francisco Jiménez, Américo Paredes, Rodolfo
Gonzales, Rafael C. Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Julian S. Garcia, Gary Soto, Oscar
Zeta Acosta, Luis Valdez, John Rechy, Luis Omar Salinas, Tino
Villanueva, Denise Chavez, Daniel Olivas, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Tomás
Rivera, Luis Alberto Urrea, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sergio Troncoso, was the first
female Mexican-American author to publish in English around 1872. The literature
on Chicano history can be found in Occupied America, by Rodolfo Acuña, which
offers an alternative perspective of history from the Chicano point of view. Felipe
de Ortego y Gasca offers an alternative perspective on Chicano literature
in Backgrounds of Mexican-American Literature, the first study in the field of
Mexican-American/Chicano literary history.

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