Literary legacies, folklore foundations
Subtitle: selfhood and cultural tradition in nineteenth and twentieth-century American literature
By: Karen E. Beardslee.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Knoxville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 202
Subjects: American fiction -- History and criticism.; Literature and folklore -- United States.; Group identity in literature.; Ethnic groups in literature.; Folklore in literature.; Culture in literature.; Self in literature.
Description: "In this provocative study of eight novels, Karen E. Beardslee asserts that American writers often engage with folk traditions as a necessary part of their characters' journeys to wholeness. Focusing not only on African American, Native American, and Hispanic American cultures but also on women's culture, Beardslee traces the connections between folk legacies and the search for selfhood in both nineteenth- and twentieth-century works."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-198) and index.
Table of contents: title: With this needle ... : Harriet Beecher Stowe's The minister's wooing and Whitney Otto's How to make an American quilt; title: Everybody loves a good story: Charles Chesnutt's The conjure woman and David Bradley's The Chaneysville incident; title: New footing on ancient ground: Zitkala-Sa's American Indian stories and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony; title: What I learn from you goes with me on the journey: Mar'ia Cristina Mena's "The birth of the god of war" and Roberta Fernandez's Intaglio: a novel in six stories.