Claims of Identity

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Claims of Identity is a book of essays discussing relationships between archetypes and identities. Drawing on history, timeless tropes, and comparative literature, this book explores the activities of identification in a variety of ways, adding significance to representations of outsiders and the marginalized in order to appreciate authors and cultures with a view toward philosophy. A thematic treatise included in this volume -- "Claims of Identity in Bret Harte's Gabriel Conroy" -- argues that identity is claimed rather than inherently bestowed, and that this is contributive to California identity. The treatise also discusses Bret Harte, the original California author. Gabriel Conroy, Bret Harte's only long novel, published in 1875, tells a fiction of who "owns" California, symbolized as a silver mine in the Sierras. Various imposters are implicated. The result is a sweeping adventure that typifies Californian identity to this day, and compliments the understanding of additional topics.