Through a Glass Darkly: Ethnic Semiosis in American Literature

In Through a Glass Darkly, William Boelhower applies semiotics to the study of American ethnicity, incorporating a wide range of critical references--from Umberto Eco to Michel Serres--and providing a provocative new model for an understanding of American texts. He questions currently popular ideas about the American literary canon, and allows us to recognize literature as a productive force that may Americanize and ethnicize readers. In doing so, he provides fresh insights into a wide variety of texts, ranging from Crévecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer, to Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. A probing, thoughtful work, Through a Glass Darkly reveals that the ethnic sign is everywhere, and that ethnic writing is American writing.