Ethnic identity between assimilationism and separatism : August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit

الملخص EN

Despite the multicultural nature of the American society, as it embraces multiple ethnic groups, it hides a long history of alienation, displacement as well as psychological deprivation of ethnic Americans.

Therefore, ethnic American literature is characterized by a resistance of racial discrimination practiced against ethnic minorities such as AfricanAmericans and Mexican-Americans.

This study aims to examine August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1984) and Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit (1979) to highlight the oppression and marginalization of AfricanAmericans and Hispanics in the American society.

These issues will be approached from the theoretical perspective of critical race theory.

The theory is used to investigate how Wilson and Valdez explore the dilemma of dual cultural identity of ethnic minorities in the diasporic American society