Michael P. Kramer and Hana Wirth-Nesher, eds., The Cambridge Companion
to Jewish American Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2003).
Highlights contributions that expand definitions of American literary and pop-
ular culture. The book includes a chronology and guide to further reading.
Criticism
Mary Jo Bona and Irma Maini, eds., Multiethnic Literature and Canon Debates
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006).
Useful collection of essays charting the growth of ethnic American writers and
the academic fields that study them. Beginning with an essay on the his-
tory of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United
States (MELUS) and its journal, this volume provides individual chapters on
Chicano/a, Italian American, African American, Native American, and Asian
American literatures.
Louis Freitas Caton, Reading American Novels and Multicultural Aesthetics:
Romancing the Postmodern Novel (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).
Uses theory derived from European Romanticism to analyze contemporary
works, which Caton argues allows for a focus on aesthetic form as well as themes
related to politics and history.
King-kok Cheung and Stan Yogi, eds., Asian American Literature: An Annotated
Bibliography (New York: Modern Language Association, 1993).
Useful list of primary sources divided by ethnicity and geographical region,
secondary sources, and literature about Asians and Asian Americans written by
non-Asians.
Teresa Córdova, “Roots and Resistance: The Emergent Writings of Twenty Years
of Chicana Feminist Struggle,” in Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United
States: Sociology, edited by Félix Padilla (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1994),
pp. 175–202.
Overview of the efforts of feminists within the Chicana movement that provides
excellent historical context for discussing literary works.
Christopher Douglas, A Genealogy of Literary Multiculturalism (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 2009).
Interprets African American, Native American, Chicano, and Asian American
literary texts in the context of theories derived from sociology and anthropology.
Wendy B. Faris, Ordinary Enchantments: Magical Realism and the Remystif ica-
tion of Narrative (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004).
Comprehensive examination of magical realism as a trend in contemporary
fiction from around the world, identifying its major characteristics and narra-
tive traits.
Andrew Furman, Contemporary Jewish American Writers and the Multicultural
Dilemma: Return of the Exiled (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press,
2000).