Eleanor Ty
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040887
- eISBN:
- 9780252099380
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040887.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines two novels that portray the unsuccessful immigrant. Lê thi diem thúy's The Gangster We Are All Looking For and Madeleine Thien's Certainty feature protagonists from war-torn ...
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This chapter examines two novels that portray the unsuccessful immigrant. Lê thi diem thúy's The Gangster We Are All Looking For and Madeleine Thien's Certainty feature protagonists from war-torn countries in Southeast Asia -- Vietnam and Borneo (later Malaysia) -- who start new lives in North America but who carry with them painful and traumatic memories that intrude upon their lives and threaten to overwhelm them. Both novels illustrate the precarity of everyday existence by revealing the ways in which war, death, and violence can lie just beneath a veneer of the ordinary and unremarkable. In Lê's novel, space and place are used to suggest a refugee family's state of contingency, both geographically and psychically. In Thien's book, memories and dreams are shown to be mediated by various kinds of technology that enable healing and global connections, even as they reawaken pain and reinforce alienation.Less
This chapter examines two novels that portray the unsuccessful immigrant. Lê thi diem thúy's The Gangster We Are All Looking For and Madeleine Thien's Certainty feature protagonists from war-torn countries in Southeast Asia -- Vietnam and Borneo (later Malaysia) -- who start new lives in North America but who carry with them painful and traumatic memories that intrude upon their lives and threaten to overwhelm them. Both novels illustrate the precarity of everyday existence by revealing the ways in which war, death, and violence can lie just beneath a veneer of the ordinary and unremarkable. In Lê's novel, space and place are used to suggest a refugee family's state of contingency, both geographically and psychically. In Thien's book, memories and dreams are shown to be mediated by various kinds of technology that enable healing and global connections, even as they reawaken pain and reinforce alienation.
Eleanor Ty
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040887
- eISBN:
- 9780252099380
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040887.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Asianfail examines literary and filmic works by contemporary Asian Americans and Asian Canadians that deal with failure and unhappiness. While the hashtag #Asianfail pokes fun at cultural ...
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Asianfail examines literary and filmic works by contemporary Asian Americans and Asian Canadians that deal with failure and unhappiness. While the hashtag #Asianfail pokes fun at cultural stereotypes of Asians on social media, the myth of the model minority has serious negative consequences for many young people who feel pressure and anxiety when they do not succeed in professional careers. This book looks at how novelists, such as Ruth Ozeki, Madeleine Thien, Alex Gilvarry, and lê thi diem thúy reveal the "cruel optimism" that characterizes ordinary existence for many people in the 21st century. Films such as The Debut, Red Doors,and Saving Face query immigrant aspirations of the older generation and the feasibility of the American dream. The protagonists in the graphic novels of Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, Keshni Kashyap and Mari Araki express their ugly and painful feelings as they grow up, while Jan Wong and Catherine Hernandez grapple with work and stress-related depression. In Linda Ohama's Obaachan's Garden and Catherine Hernandez' performance, even the aged feel precarity and are burdened with secrets of the past. These works interrogate and expose the limits of our neoliberal notions of the good life and happiness.Less
Asianfail examines literary and filmic works by contemporary Asian Americans and Asian Canadians that deal with failure and unhappiness. While the hashtag #Asianfail pokes fun at cultural stereotypes of Asians on social media, the myth of the model minority has serious negative consequences for many young people who feel pressure and anxiety when they do not succeed in professional careers. This book looks at how novelists, such as Ruth Ozeki, Madeleine Thien, Alex Gilvarry, and lê thi diem thúy reveal the "cruel optimism" that characterizes ordinary existence for many people in the 21st century. Films such as The Debut, Red Doors,and Saving Face query immigrant aspirations of the older generation and the feasibility of the American dream. The protagonists in the graphic novels of Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, Keshni Kashyap and Mari Araki express their ugly and painful feelings as they grow up, while Jan Wong and Catherine Hernandez grapple with work and stress-related depression. In Linda Ohama's Obaachan's Garden and Catherine Hernandez' performance, even the aged feel precarity and are burdened with secrets of the past. These works interrogate and expose the limits of our neoliberal notions of the good life and happiness.
