Walter Benn Michaels' Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism
Walter Benn Michaels is an active literary theorist, and is currently a Professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago. In Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism, Michaels examines American literary modernism, emphasizing its “participation in a crucial shift in American conceptions of race [and identity]” (Lee). While Progressivist racism is based upon a “racial hierarchy and the assimilation of non-Negro ethnicities” (Lee), a nativist perspective focuses upon the determination of identity through racial difference, thereby refuting any form of assimilation because of the importance of preserving racial purity. Michaels analyzes a variety of American texts of the 1920s, including The Professor’s House, by Willa Cather, and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and identifies a recurring insistence upon “identity as the determining ground of action or significance” (Michaels, 1). The differentiation of identities, or more specifically the pluralistic distinction between American and un-American, is the defining element of nativism, and Michaels asserts that the period immediately following World War I involved a “redefinition of the terms in which [this distinction] might be made” (2). Incidentally, while the term modernism is broadly used to “identify new and distinctive features in the subjects, forms, concepts, and styles of literature” (Abrams, 167), Michaels suggests it is particularly characterized by an interest in the “relation of sign to referent” (Michaels, 2). By exhibiting the modernist premise that a word achieves “reality by transcending rather than being the thing it names” (74), Michaels employs the notion of the...
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...Perloff, Marjorie. “Modernism without the Modernists: A Response to Walter Benn Michaels.” Modernism/Modernity 3:3 (1996): 99-105.
Albertini, Bill. “Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism, by Walter Benn Michaels.” Electronic Text Center. 2004. University of Virginia Library. 11/07/2004. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/enam712/albertini.html
Lee, Benjamin. “Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism, by Walter Benn Michaels.” Electronic Text Center. 2004. University of Virginia Library. 11/07/2004. http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/enam312/enam712/712lee.html
Puente, David. “Getting Around "Blood is Blood": Two Versions of American Identity.” Associated Graduate Students at University of California, Irvine. 2004. University of California, Irvine. 11/08/2004. http://www.ags.uci.edu/~clcwegsa/revolutions/Puente.htm
The book Culture Wars? The Myth of a Polarized America by Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope is a persuasive text regarding America and its division on political topics.
Despite the prejudice, hate and violence that seem to be so deeply entrenched in America's multiracial culture and history of imperialism, Takaki does offer us hope. Just as literature has the power to construct racial systems, so it also has the power to refute and transcend them. The pen is in our hands. Works Consulted -. Takaki, Ronald.
Henretta, James A., and David Brody. America: A Concise History. Vol. 1. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009.
Perkins, Geroge, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th ed. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
In Shirley Jackson’s short story the Lottery and Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, there are a few aspects of a similar nature that attempt to tackle the nature essence of the human condition. Both short stories respectively portray two similar types of foreshadowing where one is random the other is premeditated, which leads these stories to their very surprising dramatic climax that is held until the end of each story. I believe that these important variables of both stories have a strong influence on the reader’s objectification regarding the way each story presents the idea of the human condition.
Henretta, James A., and David Brody. America a Concise History. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010.
3. Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, Williams, eds., America Past and Present Volume II: since 1865 sixth edition (New York: Longman 2002).
Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. The Reader’s Companion to American History. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991).
Stephanie Coontz’s, David Brook’s, and Margaret Atwood all discuss American cultural myths in their respective essays “The Way We Wish We Were,” “One Nation, Slightly Divisible,” and “A Letter to America.” All three authors elaborate on specific cultural myths, whether it is about an ideal family, an ideal lifestyle, or an ideal country as a whole. As a result of analyzing the three texts, it is clear that the authors critique Americas image in their own was. As well as elaborate on why the realistic view of the United States is being squelched by major cultural myths.
Norton, M. B. (2012). A people & a nation: A history of the United States.
Nash, Gary., et. al. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004.
Marples, R. (2010). What should go on the curriculum? In Bailey, R. (Ed.), The philosophy of education: An introduction (pp 33-47). London: Bloomsbury
Through O’Connor’s religious background, the audience must closely analyze the true message of her story through her symbolism. Her shocking and grotesque ending of the short story challenges individuals by questioning what is good and what is evil. O’Connor’s symbolism found in her setting and main characters truly embody her view of modern society. She uses these elements as a representation for the realistic paths individuals struggle to choose between: the path involved in sin concerning money, good looks, and pride or the path towards God concerning morals, values, and respect for humanity.
Works Cited “American Literature 1865-1914.” Baym 1271. Baym, Nina et al. Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature.
Black Fiction: New Studies in the Afro-American Novel since 1945. Ed. A. Robert Lee, a.s.c. London: Vision Press, 1980. 54-73.