Cities of Others : reimagining urban spaces in Asian American literature / Xiaojing Zhou.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zhou, Xiaojing, 1952- author.

Series:

Scott and Laurie Oki series in Asian American studies

The Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

American literature--Asian American authors.

Public spaces in literature.

Cities and towns in literature.

Asian Americans in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

x, 334 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2014]

Summary:

Asian American Literature abounds with complex depictions of American cities as spaces that reinforce racial segregation and prevent interactions across boundaries of race, culture, class, and gender. However, in Cities of Others, Xiaojing Zhou uncovers a much different narrative, providing the most comprehensive examination to date of how Asian American writers-both celebrated and overlooked-depict urban settings. Zhou goes beyond examining popular portrayals of Chinatowns by paying equal attention to Asian Americans in other parts of the city. Her innovative and wide-ranging approach sheds new light on the works of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese American writers who bear witness to a variety of urban experiences. Drawing on critical theories about space from urban geography, ecocriticism, and postcolonial studies, Zhou shows how spatial organization shapes identity in the works of Sui Sin Far, Bienvenido Santos, Meena Alexander. Frank Chin, Chang-rae Lee, Karen Tei Yamashita, and others. She also shows how the everyday practices of Asian American communities challenge racial segregation, reshape urban spaces, and redefine the identity of the American city. From a reimagining of the nineteenth-century flâneur figure in an Asian American context to providing a framework that allows readers to see ethnic enclaves and American cities as mutually constitutive and transformative, Zhou gives us a provocative new way to understand some of the most important works of Asian American literature. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 "The Woman about Town": Transgressing Raced and Gendered Boundaries in Sui Sin Far's Writings 23

2 Claiming Right to the City: Lin Yutang's Chinatown Family 57

3 "Out Inside Story" of Chinatown: Fae Myenne Ng's Bone 94

4 Chinatown as an Embattled Pedagogical Space: Frank Chin's Short Story Cycle and Donald Duk 117

5 Inhabiting the City as Exiles: Bienvenido N. Santos's What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San Francisco 160

6 The City as a "Contact Zone": Meena Alexander's Manhattan Music 198

7 "The Living Voice of the City": Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker 227

8 Mapping the Global City and "the Other Scene" of Globalization: Karen Tei Yamashita's Tropic of Orange 258.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780295994024

0295994029

9780295994031

0295994037

OCLC:

882464351