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[Review Of] Jeff Karem. The Romance Of Authenticity: The Cultural Politics Of Regional And Ethnic Literatures, Helen Lock

Ethnic Studies Review

The "romance of authenticity" to which the title of Jeff Karem's timely new study refers is the romance between the American reading public and the regional or ethnic writer who is viewed as providing an "authentic" cultural viewpoint, often to the extent of becoming regarded as the premier representative of that culture. Karem's argument, however, is that too much "symbolic weight" (205) is often attached to the work of writers seized upon as "representative." They are asked to bear the burden of providing a vicarious and definitive immersion in a particular culture, and therefore their work is judged mostly in …