Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines how Asian American authors since 1945 have deployed the stereotype of Asian American inscrutability in order to re-examine and debunk the stereotype in various ways.
Trade Review"With Alterity and Empathy in Post-1945 Asian American Narratives, Hyesu Park adds another important contribution to the growing conversation about race and narrative form. In her work unpacking the figure of the ‘inscrutable Asian,’ Park explores the various ways that rhetorical and cognitive approaches to narrative can help readers to better understand the cultural work of contemporary Asian American narratives, while also compellingly demonstrating the continued need to broaden the canon of narratives upon which new developments in narrative theory are built." James J. Donahue, SUNY Potsdam (Potsdam, NY)
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Inscrutability, Asian American narratives, and narrative theory
Chapter 1:
Representing the inscrutable memory of "comfort women" in Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life (1999)
Chapter 2:
Scrutability for readerly recognition in Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt (2003)
Chapter 3:
Visualizing Asian American inscrutability in Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel, Shortcomings (2007)
Chapter 4:
Contextualizing the affect, ethics, and politics of female silence in Hisaye Yamamoto’s short stories, "Seventeen Syllables" (1949) and "Wilshire Bus" (1950)
Chapter 5:
Memorializing the inscrutable history of others: Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976) and GB Tran’s Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey (2010)
Conclusion: Bridging the fields
