Teaching Asian North American Texts
- Editors: Jennifer Ho, Jenny Heijun Wills
- Pages: 292
- Published: 2022
- ISBN: 9781603295642 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603295635 (Hardcover)
“Showcases the increasing diversity and visibility of this important literary tradition.”
—Tina Chen, Penn State University
From the short stories and journalism of Sui Sin Far to Maxine Hong Kingston’s pathbreaking The Woman Warrior to recent popular and critical successes such as Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, Asian North American literature and media encompass a long history and a diverse variety of genres and aesthetic approaches.
The essays in this volume provide context for understanding the history of Asian immigrants to the United States and Canada and the experiences of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Contributors address historical contexts, from the early enactment of Asian exclusion laws to the xenophobia following 9/11, and provide tools for textual analysis. The essays explore conventionally literary texts, genres such as mystery and speculative fiction, historical documents and legal texts, and visual media including films, photography, and graphic novels, emphasizing the ways that creators have crossed boundaries of genre and produced innovative new forms.
Acknowledgments (xi)
Introduction (1)
Part I: Genres
Approaching an Untamed Poetry: Arab North American Poetry in the Classroom (27)
The Diasporas of Sui Sin Far’s and Jhumpa Lahiri’s Asian North American Short Stories (36)
Teaching Asian North American Drama (46)
Teaching Asian North American Literature in a Community College Classroom (58)
Teaching Asian American Literature and the Law in the Land of Enchantment: A Case Study (66)
Part II: Literary Fiction
Teaching the Post-9/11 Bildungsroman (81)
Critical Consciousness and the Asian North American Realist Novel (93)
Teaching Asian North American Historical Fiction (105)
Teaching Asian North American Mystery Literature and Cinema (115)
Teaching Asian North American Detective Fiction as Social Justice Practice at a Predominantly White Institution (130)
Future Building: Teaching Asian North American Speculative Fiction (142)
Asian American Chick Lit in Cultural Studies Classrooms: Crazy Conflicted Asians (151)
Part III: Media
Photography and Asian North American Literature (163)
Documentary Propaganda Films: Representation of Japanese American and Japanese Canadian Internment (173)
Graphic Novels and the Visual Narrative of Race in American Born Chinese and Shortcomings (182)
Slanted Views: Teaching Asian North American Queer Films and Videos (193)
Mobilized Communities: Teaching Digital Activism in the Asian American Literature Course (205)
Part IV: Themes and Motifs
Traumas of War and Displacement in When the Emperor Was Divine (219)
Adoption and Asian North American Literature (230)
Approaches to Richard Fung’s Asian Indo-Caribbean Literature (243)
Critical Pedagogies: Resisting Anti-Arab Racism in the North American Classroom (250)
Teaching the Transnational in Asian North American Novels (264)
Notes on Contributors (275)
