Asian American Fiction, History and Life Writing International Encounters [Hardcover]

The last ten years have witnessed an enormous growth in American interest in Asia and Asian/American history. In particular, a set of key Asian historical moments have recently become the subject of intense American cultural scrutiny, namely Chinas Cultural Revolution and its aftermath; the Korean American war and its legacy; the era of Japanese geisha culture and its subsequent decline; and Chinas one-child policy and the rise of transracial, international adoption in its wake. Grice examines and accounts for this cultural and literary preoccupation, exploring the corresponding historical-political situations that have both circumscribed and enabled greater cultural and political contact between Asia and America.

Acknowledgements.  1. Reading Asian American Fiction, History and Life Writing: International Encounters  2. The Escape from Asia Tradition : Cultural Revolution Expatriate Memoirs  3. Contemporary Transracial Adoption Narratives: Prospects and Perspectives  4. A Secret History: American Representations of Geisha Society  5. Korean Expatriate Writing and the History of the Korean Peninsula.  Notes.  Bibliography.  Index

In this valuable addition to scholarship on Asian American literature in a transnational context, Grice (Univ. of Wales, Aberystwyth) investigates four shrouded histories of 20th century Asia --memoirs by women of Communist China, Chinese transracial adoption narratives, literature on the geisha of Japan, and Korean expatriate narratives--that help to produce a new global imaginary by both disrupting and exceeding concepts of identity and nationhood. Recommended. --Choice.

Grice insightfully and sensitively analyzes hundreds of texts from multiple Asian cultures and in several genres, making this volume a valuable addition to several disciplines, including American studies, ethnic studies, literary studiel£¼