The use of immigration history and the question of assimilation in Bharati Mukherjee’s “Orbiting”

• Authors: Iwona Filipczak

Title variants

PL

Wykorzystanie historii imigracyjnej i kwestia asymilacji w opowiadaniu Bharati Mukherjee „Orbiting”

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The goal of this article is to discuss the use of history in Bharati Mukherjee’s short story “Orbiting” from the collection The Middleman and Other Stories (1988). It is argued that Mukherjee refers back to the controversies that accompanied Italian immigration to the US at the turn of the 20th century in order to provide the background for the present day immigrants (the post-1965 wave), and challenge the view that their assimilation is impossible. The historical context of American attitudes towards the so called “controversial” European immigrants is provided. The essay makes also use of sociological concepts of the Dillingham Flaw (Parillo) and assimilation (Alba and Nee).

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest omówienie odwołania do historii w opowiadaniu Bharati Mukherjee „Orbiting” ze zbioru The Middleman and Other Stories (1988). Autorka artykułu stawia tezę, że Mukherjee nawiązuje do kontrowersji towarzyszących włoskim imigrantom w Stanach Zjednoczonych na początku XX wieku, aby na tym tle umiejscowić imigrację współczesną (po roku 1965) i w ten sposób podważyć pogląd, że asymilacja tej grupy jest niemożliwa. W artykule zostały przedstawione historyczne postawy Amerykanów wobec budzących kontrowersje imigrantów z Europy i zostały użyte takie socjologiczne pojęcia, jak „błąd Dillinghama” (Parillo) i asymilacja (Alba i Nee).

Keywords

EN

Asian American fiction; assimilation; immigration; the Dillingham Flaw

PL

literatura Amerykanów pochodzenia azjatyckiego; asymilacja; imigracja; błąd Dillinghama

• Publisher: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II. Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL
• Journal: Roczniki Humanistyczne
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 63
• Issue: 11: Anglica
• Pages: 203-217

Contributors

author

Iwona Filipczak

• Department of English Philology at the University of Zielona Góra

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.18290/rh.2015.63.11-12