American Literary Forms as Signs of Patriotism and Belonging in Mary Antin’s The Promised Land

Abstract

The paper explores the choice of narrative forms and ideology and their function in Mary Antin’s autobiography The Promised Land (1912). To emphasize her ardent support of assimilation and to persuade the American readers that immigrants from the Russian Empire pose no threat to the cultural and political life in America, Antin deliberately opted for autobiography and captivity narrative as genres which were already firmly established in American literature and culture. In her uncritical celebration of all aspects of American life, Antin employs Crèvecœur’s concept of the American, as well as the ideology of American transcendentalism.