The Stories Anthologies Tell

Close readings of the supporting prose of many contemporary American literature anthologies demonstrates that the editors of such collections position their texts at the intersection of the values of universality and diversity. These collections have shown a recent trend toward a slight overrepresentation of selections by Asian American women as compared to selections by Asian American men. This book argues that such overrepresentation is more than a simple correction of past absences. The biographical headnotes for Asian American women contributors in these texts overdetermines their presence by repeatedly describing them as women, as non-White, as wives, and as mothers. These descriptions work in unison with overrepresentation to privilege the anthologies and their editors as a new type of American pioneer, one who conquers the frontier of diversity and multiculturalism rather than the North American wilderness. This analysis should be especially useful to those interested in American literary theory and criticism.