SOURCE: Gladsky, Thomas S. “From Ethnicity to Multiculturalism: The Fiction of Stuart Dybek.” MELUS 20, no. 2 (summer 1995): 105-18.

In the following essay, Gladsky examines Dybek's expressions of his Polish heritage in his fiction.

The new world culture and old country heritage of approximately fifteen million Americans of Polish descent are among multicultural America's best kept secrets. Historically a quiet minority, they have been eager to acculturate, assimilate, and melt into the mainstream. One of the consequences of this has been a failure to acquaint other Americans with Polish culture—its history and literature—or to establish a recognized ethnic literary tradition. This is not to say that there is not a Polish presence in American letters. From the 1830s and the arrival of the first significant body of Polish emigrés, primarily officers exiled after the 1831 uprising against the tzar, American writers have created Polish literary selves in plays...