Alien Capital

Iyko Day’s Alien Capital is a cultural-studies analysis of the historical intersections of capitalism, race, and settler colonialism. Day argues that from the nineteenth century to the contemporary moment, the Asian North American figure represents the concept of abstract labor. According to the discourse of what Day calls “romantic anti-capitalism,” abstract labor is the dehumanizing and exploitative form of labor that fundamentally structures capitalism. Day asserts that there is a dichotomy at the heart of settler colonial capitalism. On one hand, there is abstract labor, figured as alien, inhuman, and unnatural. On the other hand, there is concrete labor, figured as native, human, and natural. This antagonism is deeply racialized, with Asians figured as alien and abstract and whites figured as indigenous and concrete. Alien Capital is not a history of this antagonism, however. Rather, it is a genealogy, illuminating the postmemory of Asian North American cultural production. Through a diverse array of art and literature, Day traces the collective consciousness of those raised in, but alienated from, the imagined community of settler colonial nations.

Alien · Archaeology · Art · Capital (architecture) · Capitalism · Colonialism · Late capitalism · Literature · Political economy · Political science · Race (biology) · Racialization · Romance · Sociology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Demography · Gender Studies · History · Law