Complicating Constructions

"Unlike other recent treatments. . . this one is broad, and therein lies its strength. . . . Recommended."—Choice

"This collection does seem to be unique in its mixture of essays written about 'ethnic' and 'non-ethnic' texts, and it may hearken the beginning of the end of the traditional binary method of categorizing American texts."—Multi-Cultural Reviews

"The essays in this volume achieve much that is original in the field: they raise provocative challenges to prevalent theoretical paradigms (e.g., whiteness theory, double-consciousness, models of immigration); they examine a broad range of canonical and obscure, high-literary and popular texts across historical periods; and they draw attention to the ways in which race and ethnicity are fluid, dynamic, contested, and historically malleable constructs."—Madhu Dubey, author of Signs and Cities: Black Literary Postmodernism

"This volume approaches traumas, conundrums, and opportunities of American hybridity from fresh angles. The writing is clear and the scholarship is alert and serious about its mission: to honestly confront America's racist history and practices and to understand the evolving complexity of American life and letters as fully and carefully as possible."—John Whalen-Bridge, author of Political Fiction and the American Self

"“The essays in this volume achieve much that is original in the field: they raise provocative challenges to prevalent theoretical paradigms (e.g., whiteness theory, double-consciousness, models of immigration); they examine a broad range of canonical and obscure, high-literary and popular texts across historical periods; and they draw attention to the ways in which race and ethnicity are fluid, dynamic, contested, and historically malleable constructs."—Madhu Dubey, author of Signs and Cities: Black Literary Postmodernism