Writing Trauma, Writing Life in Chanrithy Him's When Broken Glass Floats
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8910180 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bunkong Tuon (Union College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 585-612 |
| Publication date | 2015-08-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Literature Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4132 • E-ISSN: 1528-4212 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/complitstudies.52.3.0585 |
| OpenAlex | W1876471177 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 7 |
In “Writing Trauma, Writing Life in Chanrithy Him's When Broken Glass Floats,” I discuss Him's autobiography within the context of recovery narratives, where survivors of traumatic events use writing as therapy and healing. In my exegesis of the text, I demonstrate how not just Him's memory but also the history and culture of Cambodia are reclaimed in this recovery narrative, with Him somewhat paradoxically infusing her memoir, a genre that goes against the grain of Cambodian literary tradition with its focus on the self, with elements of Cambodian culture, history, and poetic structure. The result, I argue, is a text that is neither traditional Cambodian literature nor typical American immigrant literature. I conclude the essay by locating this emergent literature within the recent global boom in witness narrative and, more specifically, within the emergent discourse of Southeast Asian American studies
Archaeology · Art · Biography · Context (archaeology · Exegesis · Immigration · Life writing · Linguistics · Literature · Memoir · Narrative · Poetry · Witness · Cambodian History and Society · History · Philosophy · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Reading autobiography
Aftermath
Refugee Memories and Asian American Critique
Beyond the Killing Fields, Voices of Nine Cambodian Survivors in America
An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature
The Slave’s Narrative
Narrative and Healing in the Hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
| Citations per year | 0.2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2016 - 2020 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |