For decades, the field of Mennonite literature has been dominated by the question of Mennonite identity. After Identity: Mennonite Writing in North America is an interrogation of this prolonged preoccupation and an exploration of the potential for a move beyond it--to a truly post-identity Mennonite literature.
Born from a symposium on the subject, After Identity collects twelve interdisciplinary essays from scholars who see Mennonite writing transitioning beyond a tradition concerned primarily with defining itself and its cultural milieu. What this means for the future of Mennonite literature and its attendant criticism is the question at the heart of these essays. Contributors explore the histories and contexts--as well as the gaps--that have informed and diverted the perennial focus on identity in Mennonite literature, even as that identity is reread, reframed, and expanded.
After Identity is a timely reappraisal of the Mennonite literature of Canada and the United States at the very moment when that literature seems ready to progress into a new era.
Along with the editor, the contributors include Ervin Beck, Di Brandt, Daniel Shank Cruz, Jeff Gundy, Ann Hostetler, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Royden Loewen, Jesse Nathan, Magdalene Redekop, Hildi Froese Tiessen, and Paul Tiessen.