Constructing the literary self

Construction of the self was once available only to the elite, and the freedom of some to define their identity was sacrificed so that others could make their own self-definitions. This volume is about that kind of oppression and strategies of escaping from oppression as depicted in serious literature. Its thirteen essays are divided into five categories: Race, Gender, and the Self; Assimilation and the Self; Black Males and the Self; Female Sexuality and the Self; and Family and the Self --