This innovative multicultural reader gathers together diaries, histories, autobiographies, short stories, and excerpts from novels to bring the many facets of the American experience to life, from sixteenth-century explorations to this century's ongoing saga of immigration and acculturation. Extending the traditional boundaries of the American literary canon, the editors first offer a comprehensive overview of the history of multicultural social and literary patterns in the United States, and then present a wealth of richly diverse stories--construing that term in the broadest possible sense--from both celebrated and lesser-known authors emphasizing pluralistic experience. Whenever possible, they present narratives of cross-cultural contact and exchange, rather than reports of cultures observed in isolation. Offering a uniquely broad range of readings within a strong thematic structure, Kaleidoscope is an enjoyable and enlightening reader for anyone interested in American literature and history, or the new emphasis on multiculturalism.
Introduction: The American Multicultural Experience; Notes toward Understanding
Verrazzano's Voyage: 1524, Giovanni da Verrazzano (c. 1485-1528)
[from] The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, Alva Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490-1557)
[from] Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Samuel de Champlain (c. 1567-1635)
[from] The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, John Smith (1580-1631)
[from] Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford (1590-1657)
[from] A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Mary Rowlandson (1636?-1711?)
[from] An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Col. James Smith, James Smith (1737-1812)
[from] The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Olaudah Equiano (1745?-1797?)
[from] A Narrative of the Incidents Attending the Capture, Detention, and Ransom of Charles Johnston of Virginia, Charles Johnston (1769-1833)
[from] Domestic Manners of the Americans, Frances Trollope (1780-1863)
Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving (1783-1859)
The Prairie, John James Audubon (1785-1851)
[from] A Son of the Forest, William Apes (1798-?)
The Maypole of Merry Mount, Nathaniel Hawthore (1804-1864)
The Two Camps, William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870)
[from] Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs (c. 1813-1897)
[from] The Heroic Slave, Frederick Douglass (c. 1815-1862)
[from] La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, Francis Parkman (1823-1893)
John Lamar, Rebecca Harding Davis (1831-1910)
"Posson Jone'", George Washington Cable (1844-1925)
[from] Life Among the Piutes, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (1844-1891)
La Belle Zoraïde, Kate Chopin (1851-1904)
The Sheriff's Children, Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932)
Circumstances, Abraham Cahan (1860-1951)
Edith Maud Eaton (Sui Sin Far) (1865-1914)
Neighbour Rosicky, Willa Cather (1873-1947)
[from] Giants in the Earth, Ole Rölvaag (1876-1931)
[from] The Promised Land, Mary Antin (1881-1949)
[from] Dust Tracks on the Road, Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)
[from] Wah'kon-Tah, John Joseph Mathews (c. 1894-1979)
[from] Jews Without Money, Michael Gold (1894-1967)
[from] Becky, Jean Toomer (1894-1967)
A Justice, William Faulkner (1897-1962)
[from] Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
Studs, James T. Farrell (1904- )
Antranik of Armenia, William Saroyan (1908-1981)
[from] Black Boy, Richard Wright (1908-1960)
[from] Mount Allegro, Jerre Mangione (1909- )
[from] Christ in Concrete, Pietro Di Donato (1911- )
[from] America Is in the Heart, Carlos Bulosan (1913-1956)
Flying Home, Ralph Ellison (1914- )
A Silver Dish, Saul Bellow (1915- )
[from] Eat a Bowl of Tea, Louis Chu (1915-1970)
Tears of Autumn, Yoshiko Uchida (1921- )
[from] No-No Boy, John Okada (1923-1971)
[from] I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou (1928- )
El Patron, Nash Candelaria (1928- )
[from] Sula, Toni Morrison (1931- )
[from] Sound-Shadows of the New World, Ved Mehta (1934- )
[from] The Way to Rainy Mountain, N. Scott Momaday (1934- )
The Grandfather of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Maxine Hong Kingston (1940- )
Rosa in Television Land, Daniela Gioseffi (1941- )
News from Phoenix, Joseph Geha (1944- )
Exchange Value, Charles Johnson (1948- )
The Man to Send Rain Clouds, Leslie Marmon Silko (1948- )
Mariah, Jamaica Kincaid (1949- )
Half and Half, Amy Tan (1952- )
The Red Convertible, Louise Erdrich (1954- )