Ethnic Identity and Cultural Consciousness in American Literature

The American ethnic groups have a long track of descendance that needs delving deeper into the records of history and literature. The later generations of the earlier immigrants from distinct ethnic and cultural backdrops have almost lost the track of their lineage. The cultural conflicts and shocks experienced by those early immigrants, their efforts towards cultural unification and the hardships they experienced due the discriminative attitudes and policies of the dominant groups took times of their lives to understand and compromise. In spite of the long course of struggle, complete assimilation into the mainstream culture proves to be almost impossible with the possible emergence of the hyphenated communities. The early immigrants' experiences of agony are evidently carried into American Literature through the literary works of the writers who emerged from the hyphenated American ethnic communities like the African-Americans, the Chinese-Americans and the Indian-Americans. The literary works helped the people of their ethnic groups in understanding their real identity and come out of the trauma of identity crisis by asserting their ethnicity, culture and self.

Autorentext

Dr. Srinivasa is a university educator with the experience of teaching a number of students internationally. His interactions with the students about the stories of the lives of their dear ones in America lead him to delve deeper into the American social structure that is often compared to a mosaic of colors and a melting pot of races.