Representations of the Portuguese in American Literature

by Reinaldo Silva

Overview

Characterized as "the silent minority," the Portuguese have had a varied and checkered presence in American literature. Representations of the Portuguese in American Literature materially enhances our understanding of a field that until now only a handful of readers had noticed. Ranging from considerations of nineteenth– and twentieth–century canonical writers such as Hawthorne, Melville, Mark Twain, Jack London, and Edith Wharton, to present-day Portuguese-Americans such as Julian Silva, Frank X. Gaspar, Katherine Vaz, and Charles Reis Felix, Reinaldo Silva applies recent theories of ethnicity and race to examine cultural and historical realities as well as authorial intentions, both conscious and unconscious. In so doing, he provides students of Portuguese-American culture and history valuable guidance toward a more comprehensive understanding of the place the Portuguese have occupied in American literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933227184
Publisher:	Tagus Press
Publication date:	03/27/2008
Series:	Portuguese in the Americas Series , #7
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Born in Portugal in 1961, REINALDO SILVA immigrated to America in 1967 at age 6, settling in Newark, New Jersey. He was educated in both the United States and Portugal and holds dual citizenship. After completing undergraduate studies at the University of Coimbra in 1985, he earned an M.A. in English and American literature at Rutgers University-Newark in 1982 and a Ph.D. from New York University in 1998. He has lectured at Rutgers, NYU, NJIT and Seton Hall, and is currently Assistant Professor of English at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. His teaching and research interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature and contemporary ethnic literatures, with a special focus on Portuguese-American writers. He has published numerous articles and encyclopedia entries in American journals.

Table of Contents

Locating the Portuguese at the Margins of American Literature
Scientific Racism and the Origins of Anti-Portuguese Stereotypes
Violence and the Portuguese
The Portuguese and Sexual License
Dirt, Alcoholism, Ignorance, Buffoonery, and the Portuguese
Views from the Other Side: The Portuguese Speaking to the Mainstream
Works Cited