The cultural diversity of the United States makes it impossible to describe American identity as homogenous or monolithic. The sense of belonging to multiple cultures and its relationship to identity are central concerns in literary works by African, Native, Asian, Latino/a, and other ethnic Americans. While some prioritize one culture over another, others emphasize the space in between, to insist on a balance between the two, or to express a feeling of being in-between, or the inability to participate in either side, as so brilliantly evoked in Sui Sin Far's description: "I give my right hand to the Occidentals and my left to the Orientals, hoping that between them they will not utterly destroy the insignificant 'connecting link'". In multicultural America, identity can be complicated, confusing, even frustrating while at the same time inspiring new perspectives, creativity, and a rich source of pride. This volume features studies of works as diverse as Sherman Alexie's National Book Award-winning The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land, and the lesser known but equally powerful Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez. Also offered are essays exploring cultural and historical contexts including one by Annette Harris Powell on the changing politics of hyphenation in the United States and its literature over the course of the 20th century.

Critical contexts. The hyphenated American in twentieth- and twenty-first century America -- Intersecting lives: critics and the literature of American multicultural identity -- Sherman Alexie and the absolute truth of double-consciousness -- Four American poets explore hybrid identity formation and familial relationships -- Critical readings. Legalized hearts: legal identity in Larry Kramer's The normal heart -- Unspoken histories and one-man museums: lingering trauma and disappearing dads in the work of Chang-rae Lee -- "She's left me her legacy nonetheless": boundaries and female connection in Cuban American women's literature -- Race, ethnicity, and national identity in Paule Marshall's Brown girl, brownstones, or how the Barbadian becomes American -- "A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut": junk food and Bildungsroman in Bich Minh Nguyen's Stealing Buddha's dinner -- Neither insider nor outside but both: multicultural identity in Edith Eaton's "Mrs. Spring Fragrance" and "The inferior woman" -- Intimate relations: land and love in The descendants -- Bridging borders: Leslie Marmon Silko's cross-cultural vision in the atomic age -- A tent of one's own: negotiating Mourning Dove's authorial identity -- "All growth involves change, all change involves loss": modernism, mourning, and social change in Gish Jen's Mona in the promised land.