1st Edition
Asian American War Stories Trauma and Healing in Contemporary Asian American Literature
Asian American War Stories examines contemporary Asian American literature that considers both the short-term and the long-term effects of war, trauma, and displacement on civilians, as well as the ways that individuals seek healing in the face of suffering. Through the works of contemporary writers like Chang-rae Lee, Ocean Vuong, Nora Okja Keller, Julie Otsuka, Lan Cao, and Lawson Inada, this book explores the ways that recent Asian American literature reflects the enduring consequences of America’s wars in Asia at the individual and collective levels. The book also considers the journeys that individuals take as they pursue healing of their traumatic wounds.
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION: Trauma and Healing in Contemporary Asian American Literature ………1
CHAPTER 1: Discovering Beauty through Illness and Failure in Chang-rae Lee’s The Surrendered…………………………………………………………………………...23
CHAPTER 2: Open Wounds and Half Lives: Post-traumatic Illness and the Struggle to Heal in Lan Cao’s The Lotus and the Storm………………………………………...66
CHAPTER 3: Testimony in Asian American Literature………………………………………116
CHAPTER 4: Intergenerational Trauma in Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous………………………………………………………………………………………..159
CHAPTER 5: The Trauma of Citizenship: Collective Healing in Lawson Inada’s Internment Poetry……………………………………………………………………………….188
Index
Biography
Dr. Jeff Gibbons is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His primary areas of scholarship are Asian American Studies and Critical Race Studies. At West Point he teach a variety of electives in contemporary Asian American literature, African American literature, and Critical Race studies; he also serves at the director of the Introduction to Literature course that all first-year students must take.
