English 100

Other Readings and Media

Hagedorn, J.: Dogeaters; Kingston , M.H.: Tripmaster Monkey; Lee, C.R.: A Gesture Life; Lee, C.Y.: Flower Drum Song; Okada, J.: No-No Boy; Watanna, O.: Miss Num� of Japan; Truong, M.: The Book of Salt; Yamashita, K.T.: Tropic of Orange; and a course reader containing selected critical articles

Description

It is by now commonplace to describe Asian American identity as impossibly heterogeneous and hybrid. Can there be a textual basis for Asian American identity? In particular, is there such a thing as an Asian American novel, and if so, what are its ideal characteristics? To what extent are certain ethnic experiences more assimilable to that ideal narrative form than others? What would it mean to think of ethnic experience as constituted through different protocols of narrative form? We will look at a variety of examples to see if we can develop an account of the novel from its realist to post-realist forms.