Description
Book SynopsisArgues for re framing Asian American studies as a study defined not by its subjects and objects, but by its critique. This book examines Asian American literature and US legal discourse for the normative claims about race, gender, and sexuality.
Trade Review"Kandice Chuh argues that in the current study of Asian Americans, the critique of social inequality must overcome the impossible insistence on a uniform ethnic subject. She performs a daring deconstruction of the recurrence to ideas of authenticity and identity, discusses the pitfalls of essentialized concepts of 'activism' and 'community,' and encourages us to put the case of Asian Americans towards a more general critique of racialized U.S. society. Her intervention challenges us to think differently, to ‘imagine otherwise.’"—Lisa Lowe, author of
Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics“Imagine Otherwise is a provocative work. It questions the terms in which Asian American studies have been understood and offers a set of exciting theoretical alternatives, each of which is substantiated by close readings of literary texts. Our understanding of Asian American subjectivity is significantly enhanced in the process.”—David Palumbo-Liu, author of
Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial FrontierTable of ContentsPreface: Imagine Otherwise ix
Introduction: On Asian Americanist Critique 1
1. Against Uniform Subjectivity: Remembering "Filipino America” 31
2. Nikkei Internment: Determined Identities/Undecidable Meanings 58
3. "One Hundred Percent Korean”: On Space and Subjectivity 85
4. (Dis)Owning America 112
Conclusion: When Difference Meets Itself 147
Notes 153
Works Cited 187
Index 211
