Choice 评论
Lape (Columbia State Univ.) breaks new ground in multicultural and western studies with this superb interdisciplinary work. Defining the frontier as a place of contact between settled and advancing cultures, the author focuses on the perspectives of those who came into conflict with western Anglo settlement. Opposing Frank Turner's thesis, Lape examines several attempts to open the frontier through social critique, by writers (all with the double consciousness of bicultural identity) whose works often required hybrid strategies to negotiate complex intercultural relations. She includes studies of relations between Native Americans and Anglos, as found in autobiographies by African American James Beckwourth, Paiute Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, and Mary Austin, whose strategies involved the questionable assumption that she could completely identify with the Native Americans she cherished. Separate chapters study Asian Americans Sui Sin Far, whose stories challenged restrictions on Chinese immigrants (often through the taboo of miscegenation), and her sister, Onoto Watanna, who posed as Japanese and wrote romances highlighting contrasts between arranged marriages and marriages of choice. Lape includes also an excellent chapter on the trickster figures--reconsidered for the needs of border politics--Mourning Dove and John Rollin Ridge. Highly recommended for academic collections at all levels. J. J. Wydeven Bellevue University
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
Lape (language and literature, Columbus State Univ.) here examines many little-known Western American writers, highlighting their diverse backgrounds as well as their views regarding the complexities of the American frontier. She discusses a variety of works of interest to scholars in American and cultural studies, focusing on issues of culture, ethnicity, and stereotypes within Western frontier writing. Lape is especially interested in writers with multicultural frontier experiences, such as Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, a sympathetic mediator between the Americans and the Paiutes; James P. Beckwourth, a fur trader and Indian chief; Mourning Dove, an amateur folklorist; Sui Sin Far, an activist for Chinese rights; Onoto Watanna, a popular romance writer; and Mary Austin, a conservationist and anthropologist. This is a work of narrow scholarship, but it does presents a surprising cast of characters. Recommended for academic libraries and libraries with strong American studies collections.DCynde Bloom Lahey, New Canaan Lib., CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.