Abstract
In American ethnic literature of the last three decades of the 20th century, recurrent themes of mobility, travel, and “homing in” are emblematic of the search for identity. In this essay, which discusses three short stories, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Louise Erdrich’s “The World’s Greatest Fishermen,” and Daniel Chacon’s “The Biggest City in the World,” I attempt to demonstrate that as a consequence of technological development, with travel becoming increasingly accessible to ethnic Americans, their search for identity assumes wider range, transcending national and cultural boundaries.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
References
Anderson, Eric Gary. American Indian Literature and the Southwest. Contexts and Dispositions. Austin: U of Texas P, 1999. Print
Chacon, Daniel. “The Biggest City in the World.” Chicano Chicanery. Houston: Arte Publico, 2000. 21-35. Print Clifford, James. Routes. Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997. Print
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Durczak, Joanna. “Sherman Alexie’s ‘Armani Indians’ and the New Range of Native American Fiction.” Polish Journal for American Studies. 2 (2008): 103-20. Print
Erdrich, Louise. “The World’s Greatest Fishermen.” Love Medicine. New York: Harper-Perennial, 1993. 1-42. Print
Erdrich, Louise. Interview by Josephine Reeds. Web. 30 Nov. 2011
Gaines, Ernest. “The Sky is Gray.” Heath Anthology. Ed. Paul Lauter. Vol. 2. Lexington: Heath, 1994, 2594-2614. Print
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Walker, Alice. “Everyday Use.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 2274-80. Print
First Page
239
Last Page
249
