This volume of collected essays offers truly multiethnic, historically comparative, and meta-theoretical readings of the literature and culture of the United States. Covering works by a diverse set of American authors - from Toni Morrison to Bret Harte - these essays provide a vital supplement to the critical literary canon, mapping a newly variegated terrain that refuses the distinction between 'ethnic' and 'non-ethnic' literatures. David S. Goldstein teaches at the University of Washington, Bothell. Audrey B. Thacker teaches at California Lutheran University and California State University, Northridge. Other contributors include Jesse Aleman, Ariel Balter, Olivia Castellano, AnnaMarie Christiansen, Georgina Dodge, Tracy Floreani, Joe Lockard, Edwin J. McAllister, Sheree Meyer, William Over, Jeffrey F. L. Partridge, Chauncey Ridley, Derek Parker Royal, Alexander W. Schultheis, Andrea Tinnenmeyer, and Jose L. Torres-Padilla.