American Academia under the Threat of Assimilation in Ishmael Reed's Japanese by Spring

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15410%2F16%3A73579743" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15410/16:73579743 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

American Academia under the Threat of Assimilation in Ishmael Reed's Japanese by Spring

Original language description

The article contextualizes Ishmael Reed's 1993 satirical campus novel Japanese by Spring against the background of the Culture Wars, arguing that the novel illustrates the dangers of assimilation in American academia. Set at the fictional Jack London College, named after a writer known for his white supremacist views, the book perceives assimilation as a threat to ethnic minorities' sense of identity. Tus, the protagonist, an African American instructor and a former supporter of affirmative action named Chappie Puttbutt, is satirized for his willingness to assimilate in order to obtain tenure. Besides denouncing African Americans in his scholarship and dreaming of moving to an all-white neighbor-hood, Puttbutt decides to learn Japanese in reaction to the rising influence of Japan in the globalized economy. In Reed's satirical hyperbole, the college is eventually bought by a Japanese corporation and the new administration's effort to Japanize the campus echoes parallels with institutionalized white supremacy. Besides examining the criticism of assimilation in Japanese by Spring, this article relates it to Reed's contemporaneous essay collection Airing Dirty Laundry (1994), in which the author comments extensively on the drawbacks of monoculturalist views and their perpetuation by higher education.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

AJ - Literature, mass media, audio-visual activities

OECD FORD branch

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Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2016

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

Assimilation - A Good or Bad Word? Proceedings of the 20th International Colloquium of American Studies

ISBN

978-80-244-4937-1

ISSN

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e-ISSN

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Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

116-127

Publisher name

Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci

Place of publication

Olomouc

Event location

Olomouc

Event date

Jun 18, 2015

Type of event by nationality

WRD - Celosvětová akce

UT code for WoS article

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