Reading difference: How race and ethnicity function as tools for critical appraisal

Literary theorists and cultural sociologists alike acknowledge that there are no universal standards for appraising the value of a book. Yet, book critics regularly pronounce the literary merits and failures of novels in their reviews. Research on cultural criticism has shed considerable light on how reviewers are able to assess the meaning and value of novels in the absence of objective indicators of literary quality by relying on different cultural “tools”. This study examines how critics use authors’ race and ethnicity as a tool for constructing the value of literary fiction. Based on analysis of 265 book reviews from The New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker magazine, I find that reviewers use racial and ethnic identifiers to: (1) establish the authenticity of the novels, (2) classify works into ethnic genres, and (3) nominally identify international literary talent. I also present data on what influence racial and ethnic identification has for critics’ overall assessment of the books under review.

Research highlights▶ Authors’ racial or ethnic backgrounds are discussed in 1/3 of book reviews. ▶ Critics use authors’ race/ethnicity in 3 ways: to position authors as ethno-racial “insiders” emphasizing a book's authenticity; to classify authors into ethnic genres’; and to pique readers’ interest in reading the review. ▶ Reviews mentioning writers’ race or ethnicity are no more likely to be positive than other reviews that do not; but they do focus on different stylistic issues.