East Asian American Literature Flashcards
East Asian American Literature
Diaspora
Ethnic, religious or minority groups that have been separated from their home country and scattered across the world.
- Difficult generational gaps
East Asian American Literature
Pan-Asian American overview
East Asian American Literature
Chinese America
Early literature
“Songs of Gold Mountain”, Marlon K. Hom
- Poems on Cantonese.
- Denounce emasculation of Chinese man, dehumanization and pitiful conditions.
Edith Eaton / Sui Sin Far
- Protest injustice and prejudice + fight for working-class women
- More realistic depictions.
“Mrs Spring Fragance”
East Asian American Literature
Chinese America
World War II and postwar
- “Autoethnographical” biographies, moel minority works.
- books that did not cater to stereotypes were usually neglected
- Orientalism vs Occidentalism.
“Fifth Chinese Daughter” - Jade Snow Wong
- Influence from:
- Chinese written forms and propriety rules.
- American autobiographical genre.
- Dominant Orientalist perspective unsettled as the protagonist encounters alternative modes of existing + shifts her point of view.
- Model minority narrative: hard work overcomes all obstacles.`
WAR NOVELS
- Objective to “show” the US that China was a worthy ally.
- Moving account of women’s firsthand experience with the war
Han Suyin
- “Destination Chungking”
- “A Many-Splendored Thing”
Lin Tai Yi - “War Tide”
East Asian American Literature
Chinese America
1960s and 1970s’ pen war
- Andocentrist current and cultural nationalism.
- Focus on male figures, male activities, male bonding, code of manhood.
Louis Chu - “Eat a Bowl of Tea”
Jeffery Paul Chan
- “The Chinese in Haifa”
- “Eat Everything Before You Die”
Frank Chin - “The Eat and Run Midnight People”
East Asian American Literature
Chinese America
Feminist current
Maxine Hong Kingston
- “The Woman Warrior”
- “China Men”
East Asian American Literature
Chinese America
1980s
David Henry Wang
- “FOB”
- “M. Butterfly”
Amy Tan - “The Joy Luck Club”
Maxine Hong Kingston - “Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book”
East Asian American Literature
Chinese America
1990s onwards
Gene Luen Yang
- “American-born Chinese”
- “Avatar: The Last Airbender
- “Shang-Chi”
Rebecca F. Kuang
- “The Poppy War”
- “Yellowface”
- “Babel”
Chen Chen
- “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities”
- “Your Emergency Contact has Experienced an Emergency”
East Asian American Literature
Japanese America
Postwar literature
- Autobiographies and ehtnographies that represented a secure, peaceful, exemplary minority with successful assimilation.
- Stories of incarceration, reflections of the war.
- Monica Sone - “Nisei Daughter”
- Toshio Mori - “Yokohama, California”
- Increasingly politised aesthetically and psychological realism. Anguish of individuals.
- John Okawa - *“No-No Boy”
East Asian American Literature
Japanese America
1960s and 1970s
- More experimental
- Critical tone
Lawson Fusao Inada
- “Before the War. Poems as They Happened”
Momoko Iko
- “Gold Watch”
- “When We Were Young”
Janice Mirikitani
- “Ms.”
- ” Jungle Rot”
- “We, the Dangerous”
- “Japs”
East Asian American Literature
Japanese America
1980s
Joy Okawa - “Obasan”
East Asian American Literature
Japanese America
1990s onwards
Julie Otsuka
- “When the Emperor was Divine”
- “The Buddha in the Attic”
- “The Swimmers”
Ruth Ozeki
- “My Year of Meats”
- ” A Tale for the Time Being”
East Asian American Literature
Korean America
Younghill Kang
Richard Kim
East Asian American Literature
Korean America
Post-1965 literature
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha - “Dictée”
Cathy Song - “Picture Bride”
Ty (Tae-young) Pak - “Guilt Payment”
Kim Ronyoung - “Clay Walls”
East Asian American Literature
Korean America
1990s
Sook Nyul Choi - ” Year of Impossible Goodbyes”
Chang-Rae Lee - ” Native Speaker”
