Synopses & Reviews
This collection of new essays enters one of the most topical and energetic debates of our time--the subject of ethnicity. The recent vigorous debates being waged over questions raised by the phenomenon of multiculturalism in America highlight the fact that American culture has arisen out of an unusually rich and interactive ethnic mix. The essays in A Mixed Race suggest that American society was inescapably multicultural from its very beginnings and that this representation of cultural differences fundamentally defined American culture. While recent scholarship has looked extensively at the ethnic formation of modern American culture, this study focuses on the eighteenth century and colonial American values that have been previously overlooked in the debate, arguing that a culture shaped by responses to ethnic and racial difference is not merely a modern circumstance but one at the base of American history. Written by a group of first-class contributors, the essays in this collection discuss the representation of cultural differences between European immigrants and Native Americans, the circumstances of the first African-American autobiographical narratives, rhetorical negotiations among different European-American cultural groups, ethnic representation in the genre literature of jest books and execution narratives, and the ethnic conceptions of Michel de Crevecoeur, Phillis Wheatley, and Thomas Jefferson. A Mixed Race offers agile and original yet scholarly readings of ethnicity and ethnic formation from some of our best critics of early American culture. Moving from questions of race and ethnicity to varieties of ethnic representation, and finally to individual confrontations, this volume sheds light on the confrontations of ethnically diverse peoples, and launches a timely, full-scale investigation of the construction of American culture.
Review
"Every essay makes an original contribution, and the collection as a whole greatly increases our understanding of the subject of ethnicity in early America, which until now has received very little attention."--Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
"An excellent collection that will be both accessible and useful for undergraduates with a good background in American literature. The essays are also useful for my own research and course preparation."--Lorenzo Thomas, University of Houston-Downtown
"This is a collection much needed in the field of early American literature, bringing to bear the sorts of canon-expanding insights that have altered other areas of American literature already."--Ormond Seavey, George Washington University
"Very valuable for its range, both topically and chronologically. The central idea of the text, effectively presented by Frank Shuffelton, is a fundamental one for all courses in early American literature."--Sargent Bush, University of Wisconsin
"Enhances discussions of early American ethnicity and emerges as a fine example of its kind."--William and Mary Quarterly
"Shuffelton has put together a fascinating collection of essays, some of which address fresh material which will be of great interest to students of American ethnicity."--American Studies
About the Author
Cedric Boeckx is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Harvard University. He received his PhD from the University of Connecticut in 2001. He has held visiting positions at the Universities of Illinois and Maryland. His research interests are in theoretical syntax, comparative grammar, and
architectural questions of language, including its origins and its development in children and its neurobiological basis. He is the author of Islands and Chains (2003), co-editor with Kleanthes K. Grohmann of Multiple Wh-fronting (2003), and co-author with Howard Lasnik and Juan Uriagereka of A
Course in Minimalist Syntax (2005). He has published numerous articles in journals such as Linguistic Inquiry and Natural Language and Linguistic Theory.
Table of Contents
1. Minimalism in Linguistic Theory: History and Essence
2. The Galilean Emphasis of the Minimalist Program
3. Minimalism Made Concrete