Description
This course is designed to introduce students to the major works of Asian American writers, including the Eaton Sisters, Carlos Bulosan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Hisaye Yamamoto, Bharati Mukherjee, John Okada, Li-Young Lee, and David Hwang. The course will pay particular attention to Asian American diasporic cultures and identity crises in Asian American communities. Issues for discussion: immigrant legacy, Asian American relations to the values and mores of the homeland or Confucian cultures, Asian American stereotypes, the ?model minority? myth, family and community, and images of Asian American masculinity and femininity. We will also examine how Asian American writers over generations of assimilation, cultural, racial, and generational conflict have conveyed unique ethnic experiences that have enriched, and even changed, our understanding of the reality of modern American life.