Marni Stanley
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811677
- eISBN:
- 9781496811714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811677.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter presents a reading of Skim (2008) and This One Summer (2014) by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. Both novels feature adolescent protagonists hovering at crucial points of development. Together ...
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This chapter presents a reading of Skim (2008) and This One Summer (2014) by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. Both novels feature adolescent protagonists hovering at crucial points of development. Together with emotional issues, both Skim and This One Summer engage with a number of social issues, namely race, while demonstrating the ways in which race intersects with other ideas of difference, such as sexuality. Race is more prominent in Skim where the protagonist, Kim, is half-Japanese and half-Caucasian and attends a school with little racial diversity. In This One Summer, alterity is created by race, class, and geography, but also by age. The novel reflects the trope of a community invaded by vacationing outsiders who bring their big city views and judgments into a semi-rural space.Less
This chapter presents a reading of Skim (2008) and This One Summer (2014) by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. Both novels feature adolescent protagonists hovering at crucial points of development. Together with emotional issues, both Skim and This One Summer engage with a number of social issues, namely race, while demonstrating the ways in which race intersects with other ideas of difference, such as sexuality. Race is more prominent in Skim where the protagonist, Kim, is half-Japanese and half-Caucasian and attends a school with little racial diversity. In This One Summer, alterity is created by race, class, and geography, but also by age. The novel reflects the trope of a community invaded by vacationing outsiders who bring their big city views and judgments into a semi-rural space.
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/9780252040887.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter examines three works by Japanese North American writers: Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being,Mariko Tamaki's novella Cover Me, and her graphic novel Skim, illustrated by Jillian ...
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This chapter examines three works by Japanese North American writers: Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being,Mariko Tamaki's novella Cover Me, and her graphic novel Skim, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. Though different in narrative style and technique, these three texts feature Japanese North American teens, who struggle with identity issues, family instability, self-esteem, and depression. The protagonists are unable to follow the kind of hard-working immigrant ethos of their parents; instead, they pursue what looks like a path to unhappiness, and suffer mental and physical consequences. Ozeki plays with the connectedness of geographical space, and uses postmodern devices to show global economic and social uncertainty; Mariko Tamaki uses the detached and ironic first-person point of view of a twenty-year old to critique our obsession with ownership and money. In Skim, verbal and visual techniques convey Skim's outsider status, her broken family, difficulties with her peers, and what Sara Ahmed calls the "happiness commandment."Less
This chapter examines three works by Japanese North American writers: Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being,Mariko Tamaki's novella Cover Me, and her graphic novel Skim, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. Though different in narrative style and technique, these three texts feature Japanese North American teens, who struggle with identity issues, family instability, self-esteem, and depression. The protagonists are unable to follow the kind of hard-working immigrant ethos of their parents; instead, they pursue what looks like a path to unhappiness, and suffer mental and physical consequences. Ozeki plays with the connectedness of geographical space, and uses postmodern devices to show global economic and social uncertainty; Mariko Tamaki uses the detached and ironic first-person point of view of a twenty-year old to critique our obsession with ownership and money. In Skim, verbal and visual techniques convey Skim's outsider status, her broken family, difficulties with her peers, and what Sara Ahmed calls the "happiness commandment."
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.
