Literary Gestures: The Aesthetic in Asian American Writing

by Rocio G Davis, Sue-Im Lee

Overview

Literary Gestures:The Aesthetic in Asian American Writing contests the dominance of materialist and cultural critiques in Asian American literary discourse by re-centering critical attention around issues of aesthetics and literary form. Collapsing the perceived divisions between the "ethnic" and the "aesthetic" in Asian American literary criticism, the eleven original essays in this volume provide theoretically sophisticated and formally sensitive readings of works in prose, poetry, and drama. These contributions bring discussions of genre, canonicity, narrative, and literary value to the fore to show how aesthetic and formal concerns play an important part in the production and consumption of these works. By calling for a more balanced mode of criticism, this collection invites students and scholars to reinvest in the literary, not as a negation of the sociopolitical, but as a complementary strategy in reading and understanding Asian American literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781592133659
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	10/14/2005
Edition description:	1
Pages:	239
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Rocío G. Davis is Associate Professor of American and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Navarre and author of Transcultural Reinventions: Asian American and Asian Canadian Short-Story Cycles.

Sue-Im Lee is Assistant Professor of English at Temple University.

What People are Saying About This

Kandice Chuh

The editors and authors have done an excellent job of offering essays that are individually and collectively on point, consistently illuminating, and thoroughly enjoyable—the volume, with respect to this last point, reflects the pleasures and power of aesthetic investigation of which it speaks.