Writing the Ghetto: Class, Authorship, and the Asian American Ethnic Enclave

by Yoonmee Chang

Overview

In the United States, perhaps no minority group is considered as “model” or successful as the Asian American community, which is often described as residing in positive-sounding "ethnic enclaves." Yoonmee Chang's Writing the Ghetto helps clarify the hidden or unspoken class inequalities faced by Asian Americans, while insightfully analyzing the effect such notions have had on their literary voices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813549842
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	11/08/2010
Series:	The American Literatures Initiative Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	252
File size:	674 KB

About the Author

Yoonmee Chang is an associate professor of English and an affiliate of cultural studies at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: The Asian American Ghetto 1
2 “Like a Slum”: Ghettos and Ethnic Enclaves, Ghetto and Genre 25
3 The Japanese American Internment: Master Narratives and Class Critique 70
4 Chinese Suicide: Political Desire and Queer Exogamy 111
5 Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Korean American Spies, Shopkeepers, and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots 135
6 Indian Edison: The Ethnoburbian Paradox and Corrective Ethnography 176
Conclusion: The Postracial Aesthetic and Class Visibility 201

Editorial Reviews

"Chang's argument is nuanced, provocatively counterintuitive, and occasionally dizzying. Writing the Ghetto is an important text not only for Asian American scholars, but for American and ethnic studies scholars interested in interrogating the politics, economics, and ethics of belonging."

Modern Fiction Studies

"Yoonmee Chang's elegantly written, deftly argued, and meticulously developed Writing the Ghetto makes a valuable contribution to our understanding and appreciation of Asian American social history and literature. This is an important book."

University of California, Berkeley - Elaine H. Kim

"Chang's excellent book makes a compelling case for why Asian American critics need to use the 'ghetto' as a paradigm and marshals ample evidence to show the ways Asian American literature supports such a provocative claim."

author of Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America - Viet Thanh Nguyen

"Yoonmee Chang's elegantly written, deftly argued, and meticulously developed Writing the Ghetto makes a valuable contribution to our understanding and appreciation of Asian American social history and literature. This is an important book."

University of California, Berkeley - Elaine H. Kim

"Chang's argument is nuanced, provocatively counterintuitive, and occasionally dizzying. Writing the Ghetto is an important text not only for Asian American scholars, but for American and ethnic studies scholars interested in interrogating the politics, economics, and ethics of belonging."

From the Publisher