Against amnesia
Subtitle: contemporary women writers and the crises of historical memory
By: Nancy J. Peterson.
Series: Penn studies in contemporary American fiction
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
Subjects: Klepfisz, Irena, 1941- -- Criticism and interpretation.; Erdrich, Louise -- Criticism and interpretation.; Morrison, Toni -- Criticism and interpretation.; Kogawa, Joy -- Criticism and interpretation.; American literature -- Minority authors -- History and criticism.; Literature and history -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; American literature -- Women authors -- History and criticism.; American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Minority women -- United States -- Intellectual life.; Minority women in literature.; Ethnic groups in literature.; Minorities in literature.; Memory in literature.
Description: "In Against Amnesia, Nancy J. Peterson addresses the ongoing postmodernist debate over the possibility and relevance of documentary and official histories. Drawing on Adrienne Rich's claim that women's literature and multicultural literature vigorously resist the amnesio and nostalgia that characterize mainstream North American culture, Perterson examines the struggles toward collective memory in a wealth of contemporary women's writing.".

"Peterson's in-depth analyses of selected works by Louise Erdich, Toni Morrison, Irena Klepfisz, Joy Kogawo, and other contemporary women writers illustrate the ways in which these authors recover and represent the historical memories attached to their racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Their works probe traumatic moments in the marginalized histories of minority peoples, including Native American genocide and dispossession; African American slavery, migration, and displacement; the Holocaust; and the internment of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Peterson contends that these writers employ literary strategies that call attention to the gaps and silences of official histories. At the same time, these literary strategies allow the authors to narrate resonant counterhistories.

Rejecting the playfully imaginative treatment of history found in typical postmodern novels, these contemporary women writers seek to reconstruct historical narratives in their texts and thereby reinvigorate historical memory in contemporary American culture."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-233) and index.