Asian American Literature / Edition 1

by Bella Adams

Overview

This critical study of Asian American literature discusses work by internationally successful writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Chang-rae Lee, Bharati Mukherjee, Amy Tan and others in their historical, cultural and critical contexts. The focus of the book is on contemporary writing, from the 1970s onwards, although it also traces over a hundred years of Asian American literary production in prose, poetry, drama and criticism. The main body of the book comprises five periodized chapters that highlight important events in a nation-state that has historically rendered Asian Americans invisible. Of particular importance to the writers selected for case studies are questions of racial identity, cultural history and literary value with respect to dominant American ideologies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748622719
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	04/17/2008
Series:	Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bella Adams is Lecturer in American Studies at the Liverpool John Moores University.

Table of Contents

Series Preface     vii
Acknowledgements     viii
Chronology     ix
Introduction     1
Some Thoughts on Ethnicity and Writing     1
A History of Asian American Literature     7
Asian American Canon Formation     17
About this Book     20
American Ways of Looking, 1880s-1920s     26
Contexts and Intertexts     26
Yan Phou Lee, When I Was a Boy in China (1887)     34
Winnifred Eaton and Edith Eaton, Selected Short Stories (1900-15)     37
Conclusion     44
We are America, 1930s-50s     50
Contexts and Intertexts     50
Carlos Bulosan, America Is in the Heart (1946) and Toshio Mori, Selected Short Stories (1949)     55
Monica Sone, Nisei Daughter (1953), John Okada, No-No Boy (1957) and Hisaye Yamamoto, Selected Short Stories (1949-51)     61
Conclusion     67
Noise, Trouble and Backtalk, 1960s-70s     72
Contexts and Intertexts     72
Jade Snow Wong, Fifth Chinese Daughter (1950) and Louis Chu, Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961)     76
Frank Chin, The Chickencoop Chinaman (1972), The Year of the Dragon (1974) and The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co. (1988)     80
Maxine Hong Kingston, TheWoman Warrior (1976) and China Men (1980)     86
Conclusion     101
Between Worlds, the 1980s     107
Contexts and Intertexts     107
Joy Kogawa, Obasan (1981)     110
Maxine Hong Kingston, Tripmaster Monkey (1989) and David Henry Hwang, FOB (1979) and M. Butterfly (1988)     116
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (1989)     121
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine (1989) and Wendy Law-Yone, The Coffin Tree (1983)     128
Conclusion     137
Heterogeneity, Hybridity and Multiplicity, the 1990s     143
Contexts and Intertexts     143
Refugee Literatures     146
Lan Cao, Monkey Bridge (1997)     149
Sky Lee, Disappearing Moon Cafe (1990)     155
Mei Ng, Eating Chinese Food Naked (1998)     161
Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker (1995)     167
Conclusion     171
Conclusion     177
Student Resources     195
Glossary     195
Selected Electronic Resources     200
Guide to Further Reading     204
Index     216