Inhuman Citizenship

Traumatic Enjoyment and Asian American Literature

Datos Bibliográficos

ID19965128
AutoresJuliana Chang (autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Páginas248
Fecha de publicación2012-10-16
Open AccessNo
TipoBOOK
RevistaInhuman Citizenship (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialSanta Clara University (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.5749/minnesota/9780816674435.001.0001
OpenAlexW1546533037
ISBN9780816674435
Open LibraryOL27608062M
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas17

In Inhuman Citizenship, Juliana Chang claims that literary representations of Asian American domesticity may be understood as symptoms of America’s relationship to its national fantasies and to the “jouissance” that both overhangs and underlies those fantasies. Chang shows that by identifying with the nation’s psychic disturbance, Asian American characters ethically assume responsibility for a national unconscious that is often disclaimed. To examine her argument that racism ascribes too much, rather than a lack of, humanity, Chang analyzes domestic accounts by Asian American writers, including Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone, Brian Ascalon Roley’s American Son, Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker, and Suki Kim’s The Interpreter. Employing careful reading and Lacanian psychoanalysis, Chang finds sites of excess and shock: they are not just narratives of trauma, but they produce trauma as well. They render Asian Americans as not only the objects but also the vehicles and agents of inhuman suffering. And, claims Chang, these novels disturb yet strangely exhilarate the reader through characters who are objects of racism and yet inhumanly enjoy their suffering and the suffering of others. Through a detailed investigation of “family business” in literature depicting Asian American life, Chang shows that by identifying with the nation’s psychic disturbance, Asian American characters ethically assume responsibility for a national unconscious that is all too often disclaimed

Citizenship · Development economics · Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society · 20th century · 21st century · American literature · American literature, asian american authors, history and criticism · American literature, history and criticism · Asian American authors · asian american authors, history and criticism · Asian americans in literature · History and criticism