A contribution to the differentiation of american ethnic literatures

Abstract

The occassion of this article is the author's opinion that the widespread use of the concept of multiculturalism, especially as it designates a body of modern American literary texts, does not take into considerations differences which make problematic too facile generalizations. Intending to make a contribution to the differentiation of a seemingly homogeneous phenomenon the author offers the criteria of how a number of ethnic novels inscribe the relation between the represented consciousness and American space, an aspect of the novel he labels as the horizon of spatiality. His analysis and argument are based on readings of the works of the Irish-American writer William Kennedy, the Chinese-American novelist Maxime Hong Kingston and the Chicano author Rudolfo Anaya. The comparison of the different ways the horizon of spatiality manifests itself in their texts leads him to the conclusion that as far as Kennedy and Kingston are concerned the differences are differences of degree while the manner in which the horizon of spatiality appears in Chicano texts questions the validity of using the ethnic tag when spaeking of this group and their literature.