The Americas of Asian American literature : gendered fictions of nation and transnation / Rachel C. Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lee, Rachel C., 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jen, Gish.

Bulosan, Carlos.

American fiction--Asian American authors--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Feminism and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Feminism and literature.

Political and social views.

American fiction--Asian American authors.

United States.

History.

Women and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Women and literature.

National characteristics, American, in literature.

Yamashita, Karen Tei, 1951- Through the arc of the rain forest.

Yamashita, Karen Tei.

Hagedorn, Jessica Tarahata, 1949- Dogeaters.

Hagedorn, Jessica Tarahata.

Bulosan, Carlos--Political and social views.

Jen, Gish--Political and social views.

Asian Americans in literature.

Gender identity in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Physical Description:

xi, 205 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1999]

Summary:

Drawing on a wide array of literary, historical, and theoretical sources, Rachel Lee addresses current debates on the relationship among Asian American ethnic identity, national belonging, globalization, and gender. Lee argues that scholars have traditionally placed undue emphasis on ethnic-based political commitments -- whether these are construed as national or global -- in their readings of Asian American texts. This has constrained the intelligibility of stories that are focused less on ethnicity than on kinship, family dynamics, eroticism, and gender roles. In response, Lee makes a case for a reconceptualized Asian American criticism that centrally features gender and sexuality.

Through a critical analysis of select literary texts -- novels by Carlos Bulosan, Gish Jen, Jessica Hagedorn, and Karen Yamashita -- Lee probes the specific ways in which some Asian American authors have steered around ethnic themes with alternative tales circulating around gender and sexual identity. Lee makes it clear that what has been missing from current debates has been an analysis of the complex ways in which gender mediates questions of both national belonging and international migration. From anti-miscegenation legislation in the early twentieth century to poststructuralist theories of language to Third World feminist theory to critical studies of global cultural and economic flows, The Americas of Asian American Literature takes up pressing cultural and literary questions and points to a new direction in literary criticism.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Fraternal Devotions: Carlos Bulosan and the Sexual Politics of America 17

Chapter 2 Gish Jen and the Gendered Codes of Americanness 44

Chapter 3 Transversing Nationalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters 73

Chapter 4 Global-Local Discourse and Gendered Screen Fictions in Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rain Forest 106

Conclusion: Asian American Feminist Literary Criticism on Multiple Terrains 139

Appendix 1 Number of Plots in Dogeaters 147

Appendix 2 Epigraphs and Other Quoted Material in Dogeaters 148.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [185]-198) and index.

ISBN:

0691059608

0691059616

OCLC:

40912597