American Ethnic Literature
There are so many different voices within the context of the United States. This country is one which is built on cultural differences. Yet, for generations the only voices expressed in literature or from the white majority. Contemporary American ethnic literature is important in that it reflects the multifaceted nature of life in the United States. It is not pressured by the white majority anymore, but is rather influenced by the extremely varying experiences of vastly different individuals, as seen in the works of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," and Cathy Song's poem "Lost Sister." American ethnic literature speaks for minority voices, which have long been excluded in earlier generations of American society.
American ethnic literature has developed enormously over the last few centuries, and especially within the context of just the last few decades. In today's literary world, it now shows the different experiences of the people as they are living them. No longer are minority authors trying to win over a white audience. Rather, they are able to express their minority voices in the incredible diversity that they are seen within the context of this country. Here, the research suggests that "The issue, rather, turns upon the presiding, if erroneous, sense of their forever supposed being located at the edges of a white canonical America, a vernacular, sometimes picturesque or exotic, sub-peopling within the national realm," (Lee 2). This evolution of ethnic literature in the United States is being heavily influenced by minority voices in their purest form, not how the white majority would necessarily like to see them. This helps expose variant cultures, especially to other minority groups who are dealing with similar instances in terms of being on the fringe of a white majority. Essentially, American ethnic literature "is lived, embodied experience, as the body is both the site of oppression and the starting point for self-conscious political resistance," (Franco 127). It is the experience of those who are no longer being silenced by the white majority. They have begun to express their own individual voices in reaction political and societal norms and restrictions that have been long placed upon certain minority groups. Therefore, ethnic literature in the United States has long been communicative with other minority discourses as well, as a number of different groups are beginning to learn more both about their own identity and that of other minority groups. This is key because "Those who have incorporated other perspectives and allowed their vision to embrace other ways of looking at the world have a better chance of surviving" (Lee 1). Thus, American ethnic literature is often self-reflexive just as much as it influential on other groups in understanding the larger compilation of American identities.
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is a telling expression of the evolution of modern minority identities. The work exposes stereotypes, but also the extreme racism seen within the American context for those who may not have had to experience it first hand themselves. Here, the research suggests that "Ellison's narrator, it hardly needs stressing, speaks as the novels invented and confessional voice, and one hedged in canniest double talk and subterfuge," (Lee 21). Ellison exposes these stereotypes, and how they have impacted minority groups internally for generations-effectively molding the nature of what it is to be a minority based on externally imposed circumstances. There is a striking scene which Ellison uses the stereotypes surrounding food, often not explicitly expressed, in order to sow his points. It is true that there is a sense of identity within foods tied to ethnic experiences. The invisible man describes eating a yam, a process which had only made him extremely uncomfortable and in secure because of the stereotype associated with it. Yet he is beginning to grow out of his need to assimilate, and with that he is able to enjoy the yam unlike he ever had before. Here, Ellison writes "I no longer had to worry about who saw me or what was proper. To hell with all that, and as sweet as the yam actually was, it became like nectar with the thought," (Ellison 264). Essentially, the invisible man is no longer ashamed to embody his ethnic identity. This is an evolving representation expressed by Ellison as the invisible man continues down his journey to become his invisible self. This strategy is often used to expose the dark and negative elements of American culture in contemporary times. In this sense is breaking "our
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