Whiteness, Otherness, and the Individualism Paradox from Huck to Punk

Traber Reexamines The Practice Of Self-marginalization In Euro-american Literature And Popular Culture That Depict Whites Adopting Varied Markers Of Otherness To Disengage From The Dominant Culture. He Draws On Critical Theory, Whiteness And Cultural Studies To Counter An Eager Correlation Between Marginality And Agency. The Nonconformist Cultural Politics Of These Border Crossings Implode Since The Transgressive Identity The Protagonists Desire Relies Upon, Is Built From, The Center's Values And Definitions. An Orthodox Notion Of Individualism Underpins Each Act Of Sovereignty As It Rationalizes Exploiting Stereotypes Of An Other Constructed By The Center. The Work Closes By Positing A Theory Of Identity Based On Jean-luc Nancy's Concept Of The Emptied Self. In Recognizing The Already Mixed Quality Of Being, Identity Is Made A Vacuous Concept As The Standards For Determining Self And Difference Become Too Slippery To Hold. They're After Us!: Criminality And Hegemony In Huckleberry Finn -- Stephen Crane And Maggie's White Other -- One Of None: Quasi-hybridity In The Sun Also Rises -- Back To The Future: Suttree (and The Pioneers) -- L.a. Punk's Sub-urbanism -- Repo Man, Ambivalence, And The Generic Mediation -- Whither Agency? By Daniel S. Traber. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [185]-199) And Index. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 11 Introduction......Page 12 1 “They’re after Us!”: Criminality and Hegemony in Huckleberry Finn......Page 30 2 Stephen Crane and Maggie’s White Other......Page 50 3 One of None: Quasi-Hybridity in The Sun Also Rises......Page 72 4 Back to the Future: Suttree and The Pioneers......Page 96 5 L.A. Punk’s Sub-Urbanism......Page 126 6 Repo Man, Ambivalence, and the Generic Mediation......Page 148 7 Whither Agency?......Page 170 Notes......Page 176 Bibliography......Page 196 C......Page 212 G......Page 213 L......Page 214 R......Page 215 Z......Page 216 Traber reexamines the practice of self-marginalisation in Euro-American literature and popular culture that depict whites adopting varied markers of otherness to disengage from the dominant culture