Description
Book SynopsisExplores how representations of females transgressing the social order play out in literature by Asian American women. This book analyzes how women serve as boundary markers between ethnic or national collectives in order to reveal the male-based nature of social cohesion.
Trade Review"Leslie Bow's book is a smart, timely, and provocative analysis of the relations between rhetorical positions and material realities, themes of identity and difference, and national politics as they are treated in Asian American women's literature. Refreshingly, this work does not romanticize agency (personal and political) but rather explores how women writers and critics negotiate agency among contradictory identity positions and discourses. This is a unique book that will have a broad-base appeal to academics, intellectuals, and activists."
—Wendy S. Hesford, Indiana University"
Betrayal and Other Acts of Subversion is a challenging, informed, and thoughtful project that should be of great interest to scholars and teachers of literature, Asian American studies, and feminist studies. It fuses a set of compelling theoretical questions about national and gendered identities and affiliations with excellent examples, careful readings of narrative, and crucial background on literary publication and dissemination."
—Josephine Lee, University of MinnesotaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix 1. Introduction: Theorizing Gendered Constructions of Ethnic and National Collectivity 3 2. To Enjoy Being a Girl: Sexuality and Partial Citizenship 37 3. The Triumph of the Prefeminist Chinese Woman?: Incorporating Racial Difference Through Feminist Narrative 70 4. Third World Testimony in the Era of Globalization: Le Ly Hayslip's Bad (Girl) Karma and the Art of Neutrality 115 5. The Gendered Subject of Human Rights: Domestic Infidelity in Irrawaddy Tango and The Scent of the Gods 137 Afterword: Multipying Loyalties 168 Notes 179 Works Cited 197 Index 209
