Course Description

This course examines the formation and evolution of Asian American literary and cultural representations within the context of an American nationalistic and neoliberal discursive formation that hinges on the hegemony of national “exceptionalism” and constructions of gender, racial and ethnic identity. The reading list encourages critical engagement with both primary texts (for example, fiction, poetry, or films) and scholarship that seeks to frame Asian American cultural production within the larger national socio-ideological context and beyond. Particular attention will be paid to the ways that more recent cultural narratives appear to intersect with the changing geo-political and global economical ‘realities’ of the 21^st century.

Please be prepared to undertake close reading of both primary and theoretical texts. Items on the reading list might be examined in terms of specific historical and discursive contexts and intertextuality.

The class might focus on questions such as: In what ways have Asian American cultural productions (for example, literature, movies, documentaries, political protests, scholarship) attempted to engage with the larger nationalistic discourse? What have been recurrent narrative themes in Asian American cultural and literary texts that reflect the dialectics of minority group self-representation in relation to the U.S. and, particularly, in relation to the economic, political and historical arena of Asia/Pacific? What other equally important forms of Asian American self-representation have been set aside in the process of ethnic identity formation in various hegemonic arenas? How have literary and cultural studies in this area contributed to the formation of a pan-ethnic Asian American identity and in what ways is this identity category changing in the 21^st century?

The initial cluster of texts comes under the heading “Narratives by and of Asian Americans”. These readings examine the economic, legal and cultural matrix that formed the discursive condition of the early stages of the construction of an Asian American ethnic identity (approximately 1880’s to World War II).

The next set of readings, “Narrating the future,” looks at Asian American ethnic identity formation in the 1960’s and 1970’s in both creative texts as well as in the academy. What were the significant debates among and between artists and scholars? To what extent were these debates sufficiently reflective of the changing demographics and political economy of Asia/America? How might we locate those debates in relation to the current vantage point?

“Globalization and Asia America in the Asia/Pacific,” the third cluster of texts, looks at recent Asian America writings for the stage, in science fiction, and cyberspace. In the readings for parts 2 and 3, the class will examine much more critically the ideas of nation, race, and ethnicity. How might we understand textual representations of and by Asian Americans within the larger global context at a time when national identity is undergoing pressure to be re-defined and when national, political borders are being tested or, rather, made much more selectively permeable?

The course strongly encourages the formulation of new questions regarding this area of study.

Course requirements:

1. Essay -- 15- to 20-page essay on a substantial topic
2. Leading Class Discussion -- Class members will be responsible for leading two class discussions on a specific work (1-page single-spaced handout)
3. Field trip (1-page single-spaced analysis of field trip)

Readings may include:

Cluster 1:

Primary Texts:

1. Excerpts from The Big AIIIEEEEE! (1991);
2. Selected writings of Edith Eaton (1890’s) (“first” Asian American writer);
3. “Asian’’ subject in silent movies and pre-World War II, recent Hollywood and indie movies;
4. Bulason, America is in the Heart (1946) (excerpt);

Secondary Texts:

1. Chan, Remapping Asian American History (2003) (introduction)
2. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “A Second Life as Heritage—Ellis Island”
3. Cheng, The Melancholy of Race (2001) (excerpt);
4. Palumbo-Liu, Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial Frontier (1999) (excerpts)

Cluster 2:

Primary Texts:

1. Kogawa, Obasan (1982) (internment)
2. Roots: an Asian American Reader (1971) (excerpt)
3. Maya Lin and the Vietnam War Memorial Controversy (video)
4. Ed Lin, Waylaid (2002) (novella)
5. Poetry by Sarith Peou, Ed Bok Lee, Jai Arun Ravine

Secondary Texts:

1. Bennett, Birth of the Museum (1995) (introduction)
2. Eng, Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America (2001) (selection)

Cluster 3:

Primary Texts:

1. Yamashita, I Hotel (2010) (novel)
2. Take Out: Queer Writing from Asian Pacific America (2000) (selections)
3. Lee, The Surrendered (2010) (novel)
4. Linmark, R. Zamora, Leche (2011)

Secondary Texts:

1. Omi and Winant, Racial Formation in the United States. From the 1960s to the 1990s, 1994 (selections)
2. Gilroy, Against Race (excerpt)
3. Dirlik, “Asia Pacific studies in an age of global modernity” (2005)