Mary Jo Bona is Associate Professor of Italian American Studies and English at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. She is the editor of several books and the author of Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers. Irma Maini is Assistant Professor of English at New Jersey City University.

• ForewordJohn Lowe Acknowledgments Introduction: Multiethnic Literature in the MillenniumMary Jo Bona and Irma Maini PART I. HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS 1. From the Road not Taken to the Multi-Lane Highway: MELUS, The JournalVeronica Makowsky 2. On the Trail of the Chicana/o Subject: Literary Texts and Contexts in the Formation of Chicana/o StudiesAureliano Maria DeSoto 3. "A House Made with Stones / Full of Stories": Anthologizing Native American LiteratureKristin Czarnecki PART II. TEXTUAL READINGS 4. "But is it Great?": The Question of the Canon for Italian American Women WritersMary Jo Bona 5. Racial Politics and the Literary Reception of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching GodStephen Spencer 6. De-Centering the Canon: Understanding The Great Gatsby as an Ethnic NovelJoe Kraus 7. An Exile’s Will to Canon and Its Tension with Ethnicity: Li-Young LeeWenying Xu PART III. POPULAR CULTURE 8. Canon-Openers, Book Clubs, and Middlebrow CultureJune Dwyer 9. From the Boardroom to Cocktail Parties: "Great" Books, Multiethnic Literature, and the Production of the Professional Managerial Class in the Context of GlobalizationSarika Chandra 10. It’s Just Beginning: Assessing the Impact of the Internet on U.S. Multiethnic Literature and the "Canon"Patricia Keefe Durso ContributorsIndex

Through historical overviews and textual analyses, the contributors not only argue for the aesthetic validity of multiethnic literature, but also examine the innovative ways in which multiethnic literature is taught and critiqued. The following questions are also addressed: Who and what determines literary value? What role do scholars, students, the reading public, book awards, and/or publishers play in affirming literary value? Taken together, these essays underscore the necessity for maintaining vibrant conversations about the place of multiethnic literature both inside and outside the academy.

Mary Jo Bona is Associate Professor of Italian American Studies and English at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. She is the editor of several books and the author of Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers. Irma Maini is Assistant Professor of English at New Jersey City University.

• ForewordJohn Lowe Acknowledgments Introduction: Multiethnic Literature in the MillenniumMary Jo Bona and Irma Maini PART I. HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS 1. From the Road not Taken to the Multi-Lane Highway: MELUS, The JournalVeronica Makowsky 2. On the Trail of the Chicana/o Subject: Literary Texts and Contexts in the Formation of Chicana/o StudiesAureliano Maria DeSoto 3. "A House Made with Stones / Full of Stories": Anthologizing Native American LiteratureKristin Czarnecki PART II. TEXTUAL READINGS 4. "But is it Great?": The Question of the Canon for Italian American Women WritersMary Jo Bona 5. Racial Politics and the Literary Reception of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching GodStephen Spencer 6. De-Centering the Canon: Understanding The Great Gatsby as an Ethnic NovelJoe Kraus 7. An Exile’s Will to Canon and Its Tension with Ethnicity: Li-Young LeeWenying Xu PART III. POPULAR CULTURE 8. Canon-Openers, Book Clubs, and Middlebrow CultureJune Dwyer 9. From the Boardroom to Cocktail Parties: "Great" Books, Multiethnic Literature, and the Production of the Professional Managerial Class in the Context of GlobalizationSarika Chandra 10. It’s Just Beginning: Assessing the Impact of the Internet on U.S. Multiethnic Literature and the "Canon"Patricia Keefe Durso ContributorsIndex

Through historical overviews and textual analyses, the contributors not only argue for the aesthetic validity of multiethnic literature, but also examine the innovative ways in which multiethnic literature is taught and critiqued. The following questions are also addressed: Who and what determines literary value? What role do scholars, students, the reading public, book awards, and/or publishers play in affirming literary value? Taken together, these essays underscore the necessity for maintaining vibrant conversations about the place of multiethnic literature both inside and outside the academy.

Mary Jo Bona is Associate Professor of Italian American Studies and English at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. She is the editor of several books and the author of Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers. Irma Maini is Assistant Professor of English at New Jersey City University.

• ForewordJohn Lowe Acknowledgments Introduction: Multiethnic Literature in the MillenniumMary Jo Bona and Irma Maini PART I. HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS 1. From the Road not Taken to the Multi-Lane Highway: MELUS, The JournalVeronica Makowsky 2. On the Trail of the Chicana/o Subject: Literary Texts and Contexts in the Formation of Chicana/o StudiesAureliano Maria DeSoto 3. "A House Made with Stones / Full of Stories": Anthologizing Native American LiteratureKristin Czarnecki PART II. TEXTUAL READINGS 4. "But is it Great?": The Question of the Canon for Italian American Women WritersMary Jo Bona 5. Racial Politics and the Literary Reception of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching GodStephen Spencer 6. De-Centering the Canon: Understanding The Great Gatsby as an Ethnic NovelJoe Kraus 7. An Exile’s Will to Canon and Its Tension with Ethnicity: Li-Young LeeWenying Xu PART III. POPULAR CULTURE 8. Canon-Openers, Book Clubs, and Middlebrow CultureJune Dwyer 9. From the Boardroom to Cocktail Parties: "Great" Books, Multiethnic Literature, and the Production of the Professional Managerial Class in the Context of GlobalizationSarika Chandra 10. It’s Just Beginning: Assessing the Impact of the Internet on U.S. Multiethnic Literature and the "Canon"Patricia Keefe Durso ContributorsIndex

Through historical overviews and textual analyses, the contributors not only argue for the aesthetic validity of multiethnic literature, but also examine the innovative ways in which multiethnic literature is taught and critiqued. The following questions are also addressed: Who and what determines literary value? What role do scholars, students, the reading public, book awards, and/or publishers play in affirming literary value? Taken together, these essays underscore the necessity for maintaining vibrant conversations about the place of multiethnic literature both inside and outside the academy.