Passing recognition Obasanand the borders of Asian American and Canadian literary criticism

Bibliographic Data

ID3852090
AuthorsMarie Lo (Portland State University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume5
Issue3
Pages307-332
Publication date2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative American Studies An International Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1477-5700 • E-ISSN: 1741-2676
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/147757007x224016
OpenAlexW1971795193
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

This article situates the reception of Joy Kogawa's Obasan within a comparative North American context, tracing the divergence and convergence of US and Canadian racial discourses in the canonization of Obasan in Asian American and Canadian literary studies. Through a consideration of how the novel both affirms the oppositional politics of Asian American literary studies and the fragmented nationalism of Canadian literary studies, this article argues that the politics of reception, appropriation and recognition that underwrite the text's cross-border canonization are prefigured by the text's own engagement with passing and recognition. While Obasan's blurring of Japanese Canadian and First Nations experiences can be read as a critique of Canadian racialization and the presumed universalization of US racial formations, such representational strategies are not immune to the colonizing gestures that inform the text's inclusion in Asian American and Canadian literary studies

Art · Asian americans · Criticism · Ethnic group · Literary criticism · Literature · Sociology · Anthropology · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Race, History, and American Society

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