Description
Book SynopsisA new generation of Asian American writers has garnered critical and popular attention since the 1990s. Min Hyoung Song argues that their diverse work pushes against existing ways of thinking about race.
Trade Review"In this work of celebration and criticism, Min Hyoung Song charts a new path forward for engaging the latest—and the most successful—wave of Asian American literature. In addition to offering some amazing literary criticism and analysis, Song interviews some of today's most important Asian American writers to discuss their work and life. The resulting book is in equal measure a stunning work of literary criticism and a fascinating social commentary on how Asian American literature is produced and read."—
Edward J. W. Park, coauthor of
Probationary Americans: Contemporary Immigration Policies and the Shaping of Asian American Communities"Min Hyoung Song makes a persuasive case for a return to deep reading: the careful, loving attention to the literary text, couched within a social and political consciousness. He reminds us of the beauty to be found within the pages of the Asian American novel, short story, and poem, as well as of the brilliant testimony embedded in those works, evidence of the experiences of both the children of 1965 and their parents. Song's ambitious book not only surveys the growing field of contemporary Asian American literature, but is itself a milestone in Asian American literary history."—
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of
Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America“Applying an impressive battery of data from social studies, Song deftly moves his argument toward a poststructuralist close reading...informed by an awareness that expectations based on the race of the author often creep into the unconscious of both writer and reader...Highly recommended.” -- K.Liu * Choice *
"Song's study is timely and valuable. Unfailingly engaging and generous, it places Asian American literature in a broader context and demonstrates how humanities scholars can take up the necessary task of explaining themselves to a broader public audience." -- Yoon Sun Lee * Journal of American Studies *
“[O]ffers a comprehensive assessment of important trends and critical concerns by a leading mind in the field, and charts a course for future inquiry. If we can imagine such a genre, it is a watershed book.” -- Joseph Jonghyun Jeon * Twentieth-Century Literature *
“[T]his book makes a valuable contribution to novel theory and should be of interest to readers intent on understanding how the big, ambitious novels of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century work.” * Forum for Modern Language Studies *
“While
The Children of 1965 leaves much to be admired, indeed, can be considered a tour de force of literary criticism, it is the conclusion that is especially powerful and is the payoff for reading the monograph. Reverting away from the academic third-person voice of the previous pages, the conclusion’s first-person musings challenge literary critics to make ourselves relevant to the field that we have spent years and decades studying.” -- Jennifer Ho * Journal of Asian American Studies *
"[Song] lucidly weaves together appropriate invocations of criticism and theory with attentive and fine-grained exegesis of novels, short stories, and graphic novels, along with occasional author interviews he himself conducted." -- Victor Bascara * American Literary History *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. "We All Have Our Reasons" 1
Part I. Impositions of Form
1. Theorizing Expectations 29
2. The Trope of the Lost Manuscript 59
3. Not Ethnic Literature 81
4. American Personhood 104
Part II. Lines of Flight
5. Comics and the Changing Meaning of Race 127
6. Allegory and the Child in Jhumpa Lahiri's Fiction 152
7. Becoming Planetary 179
8. Desert–Orient–Nomad 197
Conclusion. World-Making 220
Acknowledgments 239
Appendix. Contemporary Asian American Literature 101 241
Notes 245
Works Cited 261
Index 271
