The spectacle of the quotidian ethnicity: The ethnographic imaginations of Mourning Dove, Carlos Bulosan, and Maxine Hong Kingston.
Item
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Title
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The spectacle of the quotidian ethnicity: The ethnographic imaginations of Mourning Dove, Carlos Bulosan, and Maxine Hong Kingston.
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Identifier
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AAI9908337
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identifier
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9908337
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Creator
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Ku, Ji-Song.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Neal Tolchin
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Date
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1998
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American | Anthropology, Cultural | Literature, Modern
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Abstract
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This study examines the ethnographic imaginations in the literary productions of three 20{dollar}\sp{lcub}\rm th{rcub}{dollar}-century American writers: Mourning Dove's Cogewea (1927), Carlos Bulosan's America Is in the Heart (1943), and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1976). What is unmistakable in these three works is a relationship between ethnicity and the performative dimension of the spectacle. Be it on a stage or cage of freak shows, side shows, museums, world's fairs, or marketplaces, the private quotidian of ethnic minorities--along with other human "oddities"--have customarily been displayed as public "spectacles" in the United States. In attempting to establish a theoretical relationship between "live" and "literary" performances of ethnicity, this study assesses the autobiographical narratives of three American authors, and in doing so, places at center stage the rhetorical device of ethnography, which operates simultaneously as a literary convention, an expression of mythic consciousness, and a vehicle for display and commodification of ethnic "otherness.".
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
