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| Format | Book Whole |
|---|---|
| Author, Monographic | Peterson, Brent O. |
| Title, Monographic | Popular narratives and ethnic identity: Literature and community in Die Abendschule |
| Place of Publication | Ithaca, N.Y. |
| Publisher | Cornell University Press |
| Date of Publication | 1991 |
| Extent of Work | 273 |
| ISBN | 0-8014-2548-4 |
| Abstract | Die Abendschule was a family journal published first in Buffalo and then in St. Louis between 1854 and 1940. Examining texts published in the journal during its first fifty years, Brent O. Peterson illuminates the function of popular narratives within a developing community of readers -- German immigrants of the period. It was through reading the German-language press, Peterson shows, that people disoriented by migration and modernization and divided from the rest of American society by the language they spoke could most easily learn how to deal with their new situation. Peterson considers how the literature that immigrants read represented the world in which they lived, and he demonstrates that popular narratives helped create an immigrant community by modeling new identities. He discusses the tension between individual and groupreading practices in light of changes in Die Abendschule's masthead iconography. Peterson concludes that there were many different German-American identities; readers of Die Abendschule defined themselves not only through the ethnicity they acquired in part through reading, but also through their roles as fathers, mothers, workers, believers, and supporters of diverse political platforms. Peterson's examination of texts read by immigrants raises issues similar to those debated today by feminist, materialist, and postmodernist theorists--including questions of class, gender, agency, and the distinction between "high" and "low" literature. |
| Notes | ; book, in MadCat |
| Call Number | MKI/SHS E 184 .G3 P48 1991 |
| MKI Terms | Literature, German-American/ 19th century/ Literary criticism/ Ethnic identity/ Assimilation/ Fiction |