The Quest for Whiteness in Willa Cather’s "My Ántonia" (1918) and Henry Roth’s "Call It Sleep" (1934)

Mireia Vives Martínez

doi:10.18172/jes.4757

Autores/as

Mireia Vives Martínez Universitat de València http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1723-5511

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.4757

Palabras clave:

Identidad blanca, raza, asimilación, literatura migrante, Willa Cather, Henry Roth

Resumen

El objetivo de este artículo es trazar el proceso de asimilación de los inmigrantes europeos a su llegada a Estados Unidos a comienzos del siglo XX a través de My Antonia (1918), de Willa Cather, y Call It Sleep (1934), de Henry Roth. Dada la importancia histórica de conceptos como raza e identidad blanca en Estados Unidos, analizamos las transformaciones que los protagonistas de ambas novelas llevan a cabo para lograr el estatus de blancos. Partiendo del concepto de identidad blanca en Estados Unidos y los cambios epistemológicos que experimenta, señalamos las transformaciones de los personajes en lo que respecta a la religión y los roles de género, así como su interacción con la lengua inglesa y los espacios en aras a lograr dicha integración en el nuevo mundo. Un análisis de esta índole destaca las diferencias entre las novelas, pero también el subtexto de violencia común a la experiencia del inmigrante.

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Biografía del autor/a

Mireia Vives Martínez, Universitat de València

Department of English and German Philology

Ph.D Student and Research Assistant

Citas

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