Complicating Constructions

"Unlike other recent treatments. . . this one is broad, and therein lies its strength. . . . Recommended."

"This collection does seem to be unique in its mixture of essays written about 'ethnic' and 'non-ethnic' texts, and it may hearken the beginning of the end of the traditional binary method of categorizing American texts."

"The essays in this volume achieve much that is original in the field: they raise provocative challenges to prevalent theoretical paradigms (e.g., whiteness theory, double-consciousness, models of immigration); they examine a broad range of canonical and obscure, high-literary and popular texts across historical periods; and they draw attention to the ways in which race and ethnicity are fluid, dynamic, contested, and historically malleable constructs."

"This volume approaches traumas, conundrums, and opportunities of American hybridity from fresh angles. The writing is clear and the scholarship is alert and serious about its mission: to honestly confront America's racist history and practices and to understand the evolving complexity of American life and letters as fully and carefully as possible."