African, Native, and Jewish American Literature and the Reshaping of Modernism » (First Edition)

Alicia A. Kent is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Michigan-Flint.

What does the modern era look like to those labeled "not modern" or "traditional"? Refuting claims that their art was "old world" and "primitive," African, Native, and Jewish American writers in the early twentieth century instead developed experimental strategies of self-representation that reshaped the very form of the novel itself. Uncovering the connections and confrontations among three ethnic groups not often read in relation to one another, Kent maps out the historical contexts that have shaped ethnic American writing in the Modernist era, a period of radical dislocation from homelands and increased migration for these three ethnic groups. Rather than focus on the ways others have represented these groups, Kent restores the voices of these multicultural writers to the debate about what it means to be modern.

Introduction
• African Americans: Moving from Caricatures to Creators, Charles Chesnutt and Zora Neale Hurston
• Native Americans: Moving from Primitive to Postmodern, Mourning Dove and D'Arcy McNickle
• Jewish Americans: Moving from Exile to Authorship, Abraham Cahan and Anzia Yezierska