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Drawing on a wide array of literary, historical, and theoretical sources, Rachel Lee addresses current debates on the relationship among Asian American ethnic identity, national belonging, globalization, and gender. Lee argues that scholars have traditionally placed undue emphasis on ethnic-based political commitments--whether these are construed as national or global--in their readings of Asian American texts. This has constrained the intelligibility of stories that are focused less on ethnicity than on kinship, family dynamics, eroticism, and gender roles. In response, Lee makes a case for a reconceptualized Asian American criticism that centrally features gender and sexuality.Through a critical analysis of select literary texts--novels by Carlos Bulosan, Gish Jen, Jessica Hagedorn, and Karen Yamashita--Lee probes the specific ways in which some Asian American authors have steered around ethnic themes with alternative tales circulating around gender and sexual identity. Lee makes it clear that what has been missing from current debates has been an analysis of the complex ways in which gender mediates questions of both national belonging and international migration. From anti-miscegenation legislation in the early twentieth century to poststructuralist theories of language to Third World feminist theory to critical studies of global cultural and economic flows, The Americas of Asian American Literature takes up pressing cultural and literary questions and points to a new direction in literary criticism.
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The Americas of Asian American Literature
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The Americas of Asian American Literature GENDERED FICTIONS OF NA TION AND TRANSNA TION Rachel C. Lee
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright 1999 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved Excerpts from America Is in the Heart: A Personal History by Carlos Bulosan, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. Excerpts from Typical American copyright 1991 by Gish Jen. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lee, Rachel C.,1966– The Americas of Asian American literature: gendered fictions of nation and transnation/ Rachel C. Lee. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–691–05960–8 (alk. paper). — ISBN 0–691–05961–6 (pbk. alk. paper) 1. American fiction—Asian American authors—History and criticism. 2. Feminism and literature—United States—History—20th century. 3. Women and literature—United States—History—20th century. 4. National characteristics, American, in literature. 5. Yamashita, Karen Tei, 1951– Through the arc of the rain forest. 6. Hagedorn, Jessica Tarahata, 1949– Dogeaters. 7. Bulosan, Carlos—Political and social views. 8. Jen, Gish—Political and social views. 9. Asian Americans in literature. 10. Gender identity in literature. 11. Sex role in literature. I. Title. PS153.A84L44 1999 810.9'895—dc21 99–14575 CIP This book has been composed in Janson The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper) http://pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 (Pbk.)
Contents
Preface INTRODUCTION
vii 3
CHAPTER ONE Fraternal Devotions: Carlos Bulosan and the Sexual Politics of America
17
CHAPTER TWO Gish Jen and the Gendered Codes of Americanness
44
CHAPTER THREE Transversing Nationalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters
73
CHAPTER FOUR Global-Local Discourse and Gendered Screen Fict