Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195146998
- eISBN:
- 9780199787890
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146998.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American Colonial Literature
This book argues that Asian American intellectuals have idealized Asian America, ignoring its saturation with capitalist practices. The idealization of Asian America means that Asian American ...
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This book argues that Asian American intellectuals have idealized Asian America, ignoring its saturation with capitalist practices. The idealization of Asian America means that Asian American intellectuals can neither grapple with Asian American ideological diversity nor recognize their own involvement with capitalist practices such as “panethnic entrepreneurship”, the selling of race and racial identity. The book's controversial thesis contradicts the widespread view among Asian American intellectuals — a class that includes academics, artists, politicians, and activists — that contemporary Asian America is a place of resistance to capitalist and racist exploitation. Making its case through a wide range of Asian American literature, which remains a critical arena of cultural production for Asian Americans, the book demonstrates that the literature embodies the complexities, conflicts, and potential future options of Asian American culture and politics.Less
This book argues that Asian American intellectuals have idealized Asian America, ignoring its saturation with capitalist practices. The idealization of Asian America means that Asian American intellectuals can neither grapple with Asian American ideological diversity nor recognize their own involvement with capitalist practices such as “panethnic entrepreneurship”, the selling of race and racial identity. The book's controversial thesis contradicts the widespread view among Asian American intellectuals — a class that includes academics, artists, politicians, and activists — that contemporary Asian America is a place of resistance to capitalist and racist exploitation. Making its case through a wide range of Asian American literature, which remains a critical arena of cultural production for Asian Americans, the book demonstrates that the literature embodies the complexities, conflicts, and potential future options of Asian American culture and politics.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195146998
- eISBN:
- 9780199787890
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146998.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, American Colonial Literature
This chapter re-examines the cultural and political legacies of Edith Eaton who wrote under the pen name Sui Sin Far, and her more commercially successful sister Winnifred Eaton who wrote under the ...
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This chapter re-examines the cultural and political legacies of Edith Eaton who wrote under the pen name Sui Sin Far, and her more commercially successful sister Winnifred Eaton who wrote under the pen name Onoto Watanna. These sisters, born of a Chinese mother and English father, were the first Asian American writers, publishing in the late 19th and early 20th century. Edith was identified as Chinese American and was long considered by Asian American critics as the origin of Asian American literature. Winnifred was identified as Japanese and was considered by these critics to be less authentic and less political. Resisting the idealism of Asian American literary criticism allows us to see that the political and ethical choices made by both the Eaton sisters are viable, and that these choices remain as valid options for Asian American intellectuals and other panethnic entrepreneurs today.Less
This chapter re-examines the cultural and political legacies of Edith Eaton who wrote under the pen name Sui Sin Far, and her more commercially successful sister Winnifred Eaton who wrote under the pen name Onoto Watanna. These sisters, born of a Chinese mother and English father, were the first Asian American writers, publishing in the late 19th and early 20th century. Edith was identified as Chinese American and was long considered by Asian American critics as the origin of Asian American literature. Winnifred was identified as Japanese and was considered by these critics to be less authentic and less political. Resisting the idealism of Asian American literary criticism allows us to see that the political and ethical choices made by both the Eaton sisters are viable, and that these choices remain as valid options for Asian American intellectuals and other panethnic entrepreneurs today.
Marta Caminero-Santangelo
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813030838
- eISBN:
- 9780813039213
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813030838.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter discusses and addresses the sometimes uneasy fit that Cuban Americans have historically had with the imagined “Latino” collective. It looks at the ways in which various Cuban American ...
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This chapter discusses and addresses the sometimes uneasy fit that Cuban Americans have historically had with the imagined “Latino” collective. It looks at the ways in which various Cuban American writers—including Cristina Garcia, Achy Obejas, Margarita Engle, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez—have explicitly attempted or, as in Engle's case, more implicitly attempted, to address and negotiate a relationship between Cuban Americans and a panethnic Latino whole.Less
This chapter discusses and addresses the sometimes uneasy fit that Cuban Americans have historically had with the imagined “Latino” collective. It looks at the ways in which various Cuban American writers—including Cristina Garcia, Achy Obejas, Margarita Engle, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez—have explicitly attempted or, as in Engle's case, more implicitly attempted, to address and negotiate a relationship between Cuban Americans and a panethnic Latino whole.
