The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nation and Transnation

by Rachel C. Lee

Overview

Drawing on a wide array of literary, historical, and theoretical sources, Rachel Lee addresses current debates on the relationship among Asian American ethnic identity, national belonging, globalization, and gender. Lee argues that scholars have traditionally placed undue emphasis on ethnic-based political commitments—whether these are construed as national or global—in their readings of Asian American texts. This has constrained the intelligibility of stories that are focused less on ethnicity than on kinship, family dynamics, eroticism, and gender roles. In response, Lee makes a case for a reconceptualized Asian American criticism that centrally features gender and sexuality.


Through a critical analysis of select literary texts—novels by Carlos Bulosan, Gish Jen, Jessica Hagedorn, and Karen Yamashita—Lee probes the specific ways in which some Asian American authors have steered around ethnic themes with alternative tales circulating around gender and sexual identity. Lee makes it clear that what has been missing from current debates has been an analysis of the complex ways in which gender mediates questions of both national belonging and international migration. From anti-miscegenation legislation in the early twentieth century to poststructuralist theories of language to Third World feminist theory to critical studies of global cultural and economic flows, The Americas of Asian American Literature takes up pressing cultural and literary questions and points to a new direction in literary criticism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691059617
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	10/24/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rachel C. Lee is Assistant Professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

INTRODUCTION 3

CHAPTER ONE Fraternal Devotions: Carlos Bulosan and the Sexual Politics of America 17

CHAPTER TWO Gish Jen and the Gendered Codes of Americanness 44

CHAPTER THREE Transversing Nationalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters 73

CHAPTER FOUR Global-Local Discourse and Gendered Screen Fictions in Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rain Forest 106

CONCLUSION Asian American Feminist Literary Criticism on Multiple Terrains 139

APPENDIX ONE Number of Plots in Dogeaters 147

APPENDIX TWO Epigraphs and Other Quoted Material in Dogeaters 148

Notes 151

Works Cited 185

Index 199

What People are Saying About This

Rachel Lee has opened an important new chapter in the study of Asian American literature. Her trans-Pacific and trans-hemispheric conception of the 'Americas' of Asian American culture, combined with her scrupulous theorizing of gender, provides a fresh, original approach to the field. In doing so, she also maps out the criticism of the future and boldly enlarges the meaning of American literature.

Elaine H. Kim

The Americas of Asian American Literature is a critique of ideology and an interrogation of political power arrangements as they shift in different historical contexts. Rachel Lee looks at the ideological implications of various ways of reading literature that foreground some issues and suppress others. With its richly nuanced readings of how various kinds of racialized gendering shape both writing and reading across space and time, Rachel Lee's breakthrough book enriches both Asian American cultural critique and feminist inquiry, suggesting to us how much can be gained if we more clearly understand the inseparability of representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality.

From the Publisher

"The Americas of Asian American Literature is a critique of ideology and an interrogation of political power arrangements as they shift in different historical contexts. Rachel Lee looks at the ideological implications of various ways of reading literature that foreground some issues and suppress others. With its richly nuanced readings of how various kinds of racialized gendering shape both writing and reading across space and time, Rachel Lee's breakthrough book enriches both Asian American cultural critique and feminist inquiry, suggesting to us how much can be gained if we more clearly understand the inseparability of representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality."—Elaine H. Kim, University of California, author of Asian American Literature

"Rachel Lee has opened an important new chapter in the study of Asian American literature. Her trans-Pacific and trans-hemispheric conception of the 'Americas' of Asian American culture, combined with her scrupulous theorizing of gender, provides a fresh, original approach to the field. In doing so, she also maps out the criticism of the future and boldly enlarges the meaning of American literature."—Eric Sundquist, Northwestern University

Kim

The Americas of Asian American Literature is a critique of ideology and an interrogation of political power arrangements as they shift in different historical contexts. Rachel Lee looks at the ideological implications of various ways of reading literature that foreground some issues and suppress others. With its richly nuanced readings of how various kinds of racialized gendering shape both writing and reading across space and time, Rachel Lee's breakthrough book enriches both Asian American cultural critique and feminist inquiry, suggesting to us how much can be gained if we more clearly understand the inseparability of representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality.
— Elaine H. Kim, University of California, author of "Asian American Literature"

Eric Sundquist

Rachel Lee has opened an important new chapter in the study of Asian American literature. Her trans-Pacific and trans-hemispheric conception of the 'Americas' of Asian American culture, combined with her scrupulous theorizing of gender, provides a fresh, original approach to the field. In doing so, she also maps out the criticism of the future and boldly enlarges the meaning of American literature.

Editorial Reviews

Lee is deeply invested in and concerned with the project of Asian-American feminism and argues convincingly that it must extend its scope beyond critiques of cultural nationalism. . . . Lee thus makes a valuable contribution to many areas of discussion—postcolonial studies, diaspora studies, and studies of global feminism—when she envisions a newly invigorated Asian-American feminist literary methodology that takes into account the changing significance and role of the nation-state in the new economic internationalism. . . . Lee's argument has far-reaching implications and points to exciting new avenues of inquiry.

Signs - Grace Kyungwon Hong

Lee is deeply invested in and concerned with the project of Asian-American feminism and argues convincingly that it must extend its scope beyond critiques of cultural nationalism. . . . Lee thus makes a valuable contribution to many areas of discussion—postcolonial studies, diaspora studies, and studies of global feminism—when she envisions a newly invigorated Asian-American feminist literary methodology that takes into account the changing significance and role of the nation-state in the new economic internationalism. . . . Lee's argument has far-reaching implications and points to exciting new avenues of inquiry.
— Grace Kyungwon Hong, Princeton University

Signs

"Lee is deeply invested in and concerned with the project of Asian-American feminism and argues convincingly that it must extend its scope beyond critiques of cultural nationalism. . . . Lee thus makes a valuable contribution to many areas of discussion—postcolonial studies, diaspora studies, and studies of global feminism—when she envisions a newly invigorated Asian-American feminist literary methodology that takes into account the changing significance and role of the nation-state in the new economic internationalism. . . . Lee's argument has far-reaching implications and points to exciting new avenues of inquiry."—-Grace Kyungwon Hong, Princeton University, Signs

From the Publisher