Color Me White: Naturalism/Naturalization in American Literature

This book explores a remarkable parallelism in American literary and legal histories: the parallel between naturalism and naturalization. At the turn of the twentieth century, with the influx of unprecedented waves of immigration, the judiciary is at a loss to define who is white and who is not. In the courts of law, whiteness becomes a performance of cultural assimilability rather than a biological fact. It is this same cultural code of whiteness, this book argues, around which the literature of naturalism revolves by engaging in naturalization debate of its own.

Summary

This book explores a remarkable parallelism in American literary and legal histories: the parallel between naturalism and naturalization. At the turn of the twentieth century, with the influx of unprecedented waves of immigration, the judiciary is at a loss to define who is "white" and who is not. In the courts of law, "whiteness" becomes a performance of cultural assimilability rather than a biological fact. It is this same cultural code of whiteness, this book argues, around which the literature of naturalism revolves by engaging in naturalization debate of its own.

Product details

• Authors: Mita Banerjee
• Publisher: Universitätsverlag Winter
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.10.2013
• EAN: 9783825362201
• ISBN: 978-3-8253-6220-1
• No. of pages: 484
• Dimensions: 145 mm x 216 mm x 33 mm
• Weight: 674 g
• Series: American Studies / A Monograph Series; American Studies; American Studies / A Monograph Series
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Popkultur, Sinclair, Upton, Gender Studies, Kapitalismuskritik, Hautfarbe, Naturalisierung, Whiteness, Dreiser, Theodore, Norris, Frank, Einbürgerung /U.S.A., Naturalismus /U.S.A., Crane, Stephen, amerikanische Rechtsgeschichte