Writing across the color line : U.S. print culture and the rise of ethnic literature, 1877-1920
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Writing across the color line : U.S. print culture and the rise of ethnic literature, 1877-1920
（Studies in print culture and the history of the book）
University of Massachusetts Press, c2020
- : hardcover
Available at 1 libraries
Note
Based on the author's disseration (doctoral)--University of New Hampshire, 2015
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-190) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The turn of the twentieth century was a period of experimental possibility for U.S. ethnic literature as a number of writers of color began to collaborate with the predominantly white publishing trade to make their work commercially available. In this new book, Lucas A. Dietrich analyzes publishers' and writers' archives to show how authors -- including Mar?!a Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Charles W. Chesnutt, Finley Peter Dunne, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Sui Sin Far -- drew readers into their texts by subverting existing stereotypes and adapting styles of literary regionalism and dialect writing.Writing across the Color Line details how this body of literature was selected for publication, edited, manufactured, advertised, and distributed, even as it faced hostile criticism and frequent misinterpretation by white readers. Shedding light on the transformative potential of multiethnic literature and the tenacity of racist attitudes that dominated the literary marketplace, Dietrich proves that Native American, African American, Latinx, Asian American, and Irish American writers of the period relied on self-caricature, tricksterism, and the careful control of authorial personae to influence white audiences.
Table of Contents
Introduction: An Indian Writer among U.S. Publishers
1. Sensational Job: Mar'a Amparo Ruiz de Burton in the J.B. Lippincott & Co. Catalog
2. Across the Color Line: Charles W. Chesnutt, Houghton Mifflin, and the Racial Paratext
3. Satire of Whiteness: Finley Peter Dunne's Newspaper Fictions
4. Targeting Benevolent Readers: The Souls of Black Folk, Mrs. Spring Fragrance, and A.C. McClurg & Co
Epilogue: The Future American
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