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In this seminar, we will trace the historical development of the situation of Asians in the U.S. by looking at their literary and cultural productions. We will address the theoretical question of the construction of (ethnic and gendered) Otherness, for example, in terms such as "The Yellow Peril" or even in the umbrella term "Asian American," and in some stereotypes perpetuated throughout history. A second focus will be the analysis of various genres used to represent Asian life, such as prose (novel, short story), poetry, drama, and film. A third issue will be that of literary epochs to which Asian American writers have contributed, among them, for example, postmodernism. Among the authors whom we will discuss are Sui Sin Far, David Henry Hwang, Maxine Hong Kingston, Bharati Mukherjee, Amy Tan, Elizabeth Wong, Wakako Yamauchi, and Mitsuye Yamada.
Bibliography:Hwang, David Henry. M. Butterfly. New York: Plume, 1993.Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York: Picador, 2002.Mukherjee, Bharati. The Holder of the World. New York: Ballantine, 1994.Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Random House, 1991.A Reader with additional material will be available through ILIAS at the beginning of the semester.
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