This course provides an introduction to Asian American literature since the mid-nineteenth century, with a focus on the most recent few decades. What does it mean to be Asian or partly Asian in America? Are there historical experiences, cultural expressions, or political positions that give Asian Americans a collective identity, as it is often assumed to be the case? How does the knowledge of their experiences and perspectives enrich our understandings of American culture and U.S.-Asian relations?
We will examine these questions through the lens of literature, prose narratives and poetry in particular. In other words, we will discuss a selected group of literary works so as to uncover the ways in which the most interesting minds among Asian Americans comment on the meanings of race, ethnicity, and culture, as well as their relations to other social issues, in both American and transnational contexts.
Readings may include Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men, Hisaye Yamamoto’s Seventeen Syllables, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee, Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters, Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion, Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange, Linh Dinh’s Blood and Soap, H. M. Naqvi’s Home Boy, and Todd Shimoda’s OH! A Mystery of ‘mono no aware.
