Urban existence and Americanised identity in Anzia Yezierska’s Hungry Hearts

Abstract

This article explores the construction of American identity in Anzia Yezierska’s Hungry Hearts, and its position against the backdrop of early twentieth century New York. In the first and final stories in the collection, Yezierska uses the lens of anthropological study to present an Americanised identity that is mutually constructed through dialogue and relationship. The physical and social architecture of New York shapes the relationships that occur within it, and, in the experience of these relationships, Yezierska suggests Americanised identity is not a static ideal accessed through assimilation or costume, but a dialogic construction within which immigrant identity is a necessary and inextricable part.