Constituting Americans: Cultural Anxiety and Narrative Form

410 Pages·1994·28.624 MB·English

by  Priscilla Wald

Constituting Americans
NewAmericanists
ASeriesEdited by DonaldE. Pease
Constitnting Ameriuans
......................................................
Cultural Anxiety and Narrative Form
Priscilla Wald
DukeUniversityPress DurhamandLondon 1995
Thirdprinting,2003
© 1995DukeUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
onacid-freepaper00
DesignedbyC.H.Westmoreland
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byKeystoneTypesetting,Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
appearonthelastprintedpageofthisbook.
QuotationsfromMinaLoy'spoetryarefromTheLastLunar
Baedeker, ed. Roger L. Conover (Manchester, England:
CarcanetPressLimited,1982);reprintedbypermissionof
RogerL.Conover.
Quotations from Gertrude Stein's personal correspon
dencearetakenfromtheYaleCollectionofAmericanLit
erature, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Univer
sity,andareusedbypermission.
ForAudreyandStanley, EvanandNathaniel

Uontents
Abbreviations ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction I
NeitherCitizenNorAlien: NationalNarratives,
FrederickDouglass, andthePolitics
ofSelf-Definition 14
2
"AsFromaFaithfulMirror": Pierre, OurNig,
andLiteraryNationalism 106
3
"TheStrangeMeaningofBeingBlack":
TheSouls ofBlackFolkandtheNarrative
ofHistory 172
4
A"Losing-SelfSense": The MakingofAmericans
andtheAnxietyofIdentity 237
Coda:AnAmerican"We" 299
Notes 305
SelectedBibliography 353
Index 375

Abbreviati
ODS
AA AnthonyAppiah,"TheUncompletedArgument:DuBoisandtheIllusion
ofRace"
ABT GertrudeStein,TheAutobiographyofAliceB. Toklas
AL AbrahamLincoln:HisSpeechesandWritings
BC WilliamBlackstone,CommentariesontheLawsofEngland
BG AnziaYezierska,BreadGivers
BS FrantzFanon,BlackSkin, WhiteMasks
BW BarbaraA. White,"'OurNig'andtheShe-Devil: NewInformationabout
HarrietWilsonandthe'Belmont'Family"
CAL EvertA.andGeorgeL. Duyckinck,CyclopaediaofAmericanLiterature
CMA GertrudeStein,"CultivatedMotorAutomatism"
CN CherokeeNationv. TheStateofGeorgia
COR W. E. B.DuBois,"TheConservationofRaces"
CR WilliamGilpin, The CosmopolitanRailway
D TheresaHakKyungCha,Dictee
DB Downesv. Bidwell
DD W. E. B. DuBois,DuskofDawn:AnEssayTowardanAutobiographyofa
RaceConcept
DLL David Leveri~g Lewis, W. E. B. Du Bois: Biography ofa Race, 1868
1919
DM Deborah E. McDowell, "In the First Place: Making Frederick Douglass
andtheAfro-AmericanNarrativeTradition"
DMP HoraceKallen, "DemocracyversustheMelting-Pot"
DR DemocraticReview
DS Scottv. Sandford
EA GertrudeStein,Everybody'sAutobiography