Trailing Clouds: Immigrant Fiction in Contemporary America: Cowart, David:

Trailing Clouds: Immigrant Fiction in Contemporary America: Cowart, David: 9780801444692: Amazon.com: Books:






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Trailing Clouds: Immigrant Fiction in Contemporary America Hardcover – May 1, 2006
by David Cowart (Author)
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"We stand to learn much about the durability of or changes in the American way of life from writers such as Bharati Mukherjee (born in India), Ursula Hegi (born in Germany), Jerzy Kosinski (born in Poland), Jamaica Kincaid (born in Antigua), Cristina Garcia (born in Cuba), Edwidge Danticat (born in Haiti), Wendy Law-Yone (born in Burma), Mylène Dressler (born in the Netherlands), Lan Cao (born in Vietnam), and such Korean-born authors as Chang-rae Lee, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Nora Okja Keller―writers who in recent years have come to this country and, in their work, contributed to its culture."―David Cowart

In Trailing Clouds, David Cowart offers fresh insights into contemporary American literature by exploring novels and short stories published since 1970 by immigrant writers. Balancing historical and social context with close readings of selected works, Cowart explores the major themes raised in immigrant writing: the acquisition of language, the dual identity of the immigrant, the place of the homeland, and the nature of citizenship.

Cowart suggests that the attention to first-generation writers (those whose parents immigrated) has not prepared us to read the fresher stories of those more recent arrivals whose immigrant experience has been more direct and unmediated. Highlighting the nuanced reflection in immigrant fiction of a nation that is ever more diverse and multicultural, Cowart argues that readers can learn much about the changes in the American way of life from writers who have come to this country, embraced its culture, and penned substantial literary work in English.

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264 pages
Cornell University Press
May 1, 2006
18 years and up


Editorial Reviews

Review


"This carefully researched, well-written book defies comparison to other recent criticism."― Choice
Review


"While some of the authors discussed in Trailing Clouds are well established, others are just making their presence felt: they are the classroom texts of the near future. David Cowart provides original and nuanced readings and enriches our understanding of immigrant fiction. He taught me things I had not seen. Cowart eschews an emphasis on victimization, balkanization, and the horrors of American imperialism. While not condoning a lot that is wrong with America, Cowart listens to his authors and to all that they are grateful for in their new lives."-- Kathryn Hume, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, Pennsylvania State University

From the Back Cover
"While some of the authors discussed in Trailing Clouds are well established, others are just making their presence felt: they are the classroom texts of the near future. David Cowart provides original and nuanced readings and enriches our understanding of immigrant fiction. He taught me things I had not seen. Cowart eschews an emphasis on victimization, balkanization, and the horrors of American imperialism. While not condoning a lot that is wrong with America, Cowart listens to his authors and to all that they are grateful for in their new lives."—Kathryn Hume, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, Pennsylvania State University
About the Author


David Cowart is Louise Fry Scudder Professor of Humanities at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of several books, including Don DeLillo: The Physics of Language and Literary Symbiosis: The Reconfigured Text in Twentieth-Century Writing.
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cornell University Press; 1st edition (May 1, 2006)

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David Cowart


David Cowart took his bachelor's degree at the University of Alabama. After teaching in Ethiopia in the Peace Corps, he took an M.A. at Indiana University, then served two years in the U.S. Army (in Panama). He took his doctorate at Rutgers University in 1977.

Professor Cowart has since taught at the University of South Carolina, where he has been named a Louise Fry Scudder Professor and a Board of Trustees Professor. For three years, in the mid-nineties, he served as Director of Graduate Studies in English.

He has been honored with a number of teaching awards, as well as important grants and fellowships, including an NEH Summer Stipend and a year-long NEH Fellowship. He has held Fulbright chairs at the University of Helsinki and at Syddansk Universitet in Odense, Denmark. In addition to lecturing in Latvia, Germany, and the Czech Republic, he has presented keynote addresses at international conferences in England, Poland, Japan, and Germany. In 2005, he toured Japan as a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer.

He is a consulting editor for the journal Critique.

In his major scholarly work, Professor Cowart has focused on American fiction in the period after 1945. In addition to the books listed on his Amazon.com author page, he is the author of approximately one hundred articles, notes, and reviews. His book on Don DeLillo won the SAMLA Studies Award in 2003. He is now working on an eighth book, in which he examines the idea of literary generations in the postmodern period.