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2006

Virginia Commonwealth University

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Book Review

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[Review Of] Jeff Karem. The Romance Of Authenticity: The Cultural Politics Of Regional And Ethnic Literatures, Helen Lock Jan 2006

[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 …


[Review Of] John Lie. Multiethnic Japan, John B. Richards Jan 2006

[Review Of] John Lie. Multiethnic Japan, John B. Richards

Ethnic Studies Review

In preparing Multiethnic Japan, sociologist John Lie set out to describe the lives of the new Asian workers in Japan, but ended up demonstrating that Japan has long been and remains very much a multiethnic country.


[Review Of] Patricia Klindienst. The Earth Knows My Name: Food Culture And Sustainability In The Gardens Of Ethnic America, Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer Jan 2006

[Review Of] Patricia Klindienst. The Earth Knows My Name: Food Culture And Sustainability In The Gardens Of Ethnic America, Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer

Ethnic Studies Review

Perhaps one of the most fascinating parts of this book is its prologue, where Klindienst discusses her own family's rejection of its ethnic Italian heritage. Frightened by the anti-Italian sentiment surrounding the execution of Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the mid-1920s, Klindienst's family changed their name to something less Italian-sounding (she doesn't say what) and raised their children as assimilated Americans. Only many years later, at a family reunion, did Klindienst learn of her own ethnic origins. Fascinated, she began researching not only her own family's history but also that of Italian Americans in general. In the process she …