Study of Representations of "blood" and "place" in the concept of race within the "American"identity

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02356
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Japan Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Sugiyama Naoko 日本女子大学, 人間社会学部, 教授 (20213506)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: William Dean Howells / Leslie Marmon Silko / American identity / passing / transnationality / Almanac of the Dead / Native American / Imperative Duty

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The importance of the racial representations during the late nineteenth century, the era in which the problem of institutional racial discrimination against African Americans surfaced while the number of "new" immigrants from eastern and southern European countries increased, has been confirmed in terms of the developmenf ot the "American" identity. Based on this discovery, I focused my research on　Mark Twain and William Dean Howells, and analyzed how they dealt with racial images and identities in their novels. An article in a scholarly journal and two oral presentations resulted. I also persued this theme to analyze Native American literature, and presented the result at the annual convention of American Studies Association in June, 2018. These reseach led me to an analysis of Asian American authors, and an oral presentation on Maxine Hong Kingston is scheduled to take place at an international convention in Tokyo in September, 2018.

Free Research Field

アメリカ文学