Contemporary American Writers of Polish Descent. A Study of the Fiction of Anthony Bukoski and Stuart Dybek (original) (raw)

the fact that, as Sollors aptly observes, "Lewisohn never dwelled in any ghetto, warm or otherwise." 4 One may encounter another weakness when confronted with literary criticism devoted to ethnic literature, for sociologists may often overestimate and even exoticize literature (in the narrow sense of belles letters) as supreme evidence while underestimating their own reliance on literary devices and story-telling techniques. Literary critics, on the other hand, tend to be either uninterested in anything but the leading American writers or unaware of the newer thinking on ethnicity. 5 Contemporary American Writers of Polish Descent. A Study of the Fiction of Anthony Bukoski and Stuart Dybek. may thus be read not only as expressions of mediation between cultures but also as handbooks of socialization into the codes of Americanness. 14 The major focus of Werner Sollors, thus, was not on the ethnic experience itself, but "[on] the mental formations and cultural constructions (the codes, beliefs, rites and rituals) which were developed in America in order to make sense of ethnicity and immigration in a melting-pot culture." 15 Sollors's work, as well as Mary V. Dearborn's seminal study Pocahontas's Daughters (published in 1986) and William Boelhower's Through a Glass Darkly 16 (published in 1987) were quickly acknowledged by many scholars as presenting a significant challenge to the accepted view of ethnicity, mainly because they stood in opposition to the "separatist and 'mirror into social history' approaches of the preceding decade." 17 Beyond Ethnicity, however, "has proved to be the most illuminating and controversial of these works," 18 especially taking into account the fact that Werner Sollors differentiated between "consent," i.e. contractual, self-made and "descent," i.e. hereditary, ancestral. As Sollors remarks in his book: American identity alone may take the place of a relationship "in law" (like "husband, wife, step- ,-in law, etc."), leaving ethnicity to fill the place of relationships "in nature" ("the natural child, the illegitimate child, the natural mother, etc."). In American social symbolism ethnicity may function as a construct evocative of blood, nature, and descent, whereas national identity may be relegated to the order of law, conduct, and consent. 19 14 Sollors, Beyond Ethnicity, p. 7. 15 Sollors, Beyond Ethnicity, p. 9. 16 William Boelhower breaks new ground and provides a model for an understanding of American texts, which discourages the readers to differentiate between the 'mainstream' and 'ethnic' texts because they cannot be meaningfully separated: "the ethnic sign is everywhere, and ethnic writing is American writing." (William Boelhower, Through a Glass Darkly: Ethnic Semiosis in American Literature, New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987, p. 3). Among various premises of his study, the author underscores the significance of Puritan origins and biblical texts for American "ethnogenesis"-the becoming of the American nation and its subjects. While outlining the process of identity formation, Boelhower notices that what is constitutive of the American national character is the Indian. (Jelena Sesnić also comments upon Boelhower's study in: From Shadow to Presence, p. 17.)