How do different ethnic groups approach the short story form? Do different groups develop culture-related themes? Do oral traditions within a particular culture shape the way in which written stories are told? Why does "the community" loom so large in ethnic stories? How do such traditional forms as African American slave narratives or the Chinese talk-story shape the modern short story? Which writers of color should be added to the canon? Why have some minority writers been ignored for such a long time? How does a person of color write for white publishers, editors, and readers? Each essay in this collection of original studies addresses these questions and other related concerns. It is common knowledge that most scholarly work on the short story has been on white writers: This collection is the first work to specifically focus on short story practice by ethnic minorities in America, ranging from African Americans to Native Americans, Chinese Americans to Hispanic Americans. The number of women writers discussed will be of particular interest to women studies and genre studies researchers, and the collections will be of vital interest to scholars working in American literature, narrative theory, and multicultural studies.

How do different ethnic groups approach the short story form? Do different groups develop culture-related themes? Do oral traditions within a particular culture shape the way in which written stories are told? Why does "the community" loom so large in ethnic stories? How do such traditional forms as African American slave narratives or the Chinese talk-story shape the modern short story? Which writers of color should be added to the canon? Why have some minority writers been ignored for such a long time? How does a person of color write for white publishers, editors, and readers? Each essay in this collection of original studies addresses these questions and other related concerns. It is common knowledge that most scholarly work on the short story has been on white writers: This collection is the first work to specifically focus on short story practice by ethnic minorities in America, ranging from African Americans to Native Americans, Chinese Americans to Hispanic Americans. The number of women writers discussed will be of particular interest to women studies and genre studies researchers, and the collections will be of vital interest to scholars working in American literature, narrative theory, and multicultural studies.

This collection of essays explores the intertwining social conditions of ethnicity and gender as they are represented in short stories by contemporary American women. The introduction to the collection explains the theoretical understanding of gender and ethnicity as social constructions that provide a context for individual experience. The collection brings together analyses of short stories that focus on major ethnic cultures in the United States: Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Japanese American, Asian American, African American, Jewish American, white Protestant American, and Native American. Each essay testifies to the struggles of women within patriarchal cultures in America, and each explores how different ethnic identities set the terms of these gender struggles. The essays also reveal the complications of other important social issues, such as class, sexual preference, and religion. Individually, each essay contributes a significant new analysis of a short story or collection by an important contemporary American writer. Together, the essays indicate the complexity and significance of this cultural approach to women's fiction, demonstrate the critical theories that are currently developing in the fields of gender and ethnic studies, and suggest that neither ethnicity nor gender can legitimately be considered alone.

Stories navigating the commplicated terrain of race in America, from acclaimed writers like Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, Sandra Cisneros, Sherman Alexie, and Amy Tan The editors who brought us Unsettling America and Identity Lessons have compiled a short-story anthology that focuses on themes of racial and ethnic assimilation. With humor, passion, and grace, the contributors lay bare poignant attempts at conformity and the alienation sometimes experienced by ethnic Americans. But they also tell of the strength gained through the preservation of their communities, and the realization that it was often their difference from the norm that helped them to succeed. In pieces suggesting that American identity is far from settled, these writers illustrate the diversity that is the source of both the nation's great discord and infinite promise. "These beautiful stories radiate with the poignant, ingenious ways young people come to terms with their ethnic identities, negotiating their families, school, friends and their futures . . . This exemplary collection fulfills the editors' aims: to open dialogue and encourage the telling of difficult, adaptive or affirming life experiences." -Publisher's Weekly

This book reveals a female sexual economy in the marketplace of contemporary short fiction which locates a struggle for sexual power between mothers and daughters within a larger struggle to pursue that object of the American dream: whiteness.

Asian America has produced numerous short-story writers in the 20th century. Some emerged after World War II, yet most of these writers have flourished since 1980. The first reference of its kind, this volume includes alphabetically arranged entries for 49 nationally and internationally acclaimed Asian American writers of short fiction. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, a survey of the writer's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies. Writers include Frank Chin, Sui Sin Far, Shirely Geok-lin Lim, Toshio Mori, and Bharati Mukherjee. An introductory essay provides a close examination of the Asian American short story, and the volume closes with a list of works for further reading.