Karem argues that, in contrast to prevailing assumptions that authenticity should be prized as a goal of regional and ethnic literatures (such as Southern, Southwestern, African-American, Latino, and Native American), it is in fact a dangerously restrictive category of literary judgment. He draws on a large body of archival evidence to show how intense political and economic interests have determined what literary representations are deemed authentic, constraining not only what such writers can publish, but also limiting the ways in which their works are interpreted.