Foreign Accents: Chinese American Verse From Exclusion To Postethnicity (global Asias)
by Steven G. Yao /
2010 / English / PDF
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Foreign Accents
Foreign Accents examines the various transpacific
signifying strategies by which poets of Chinese descent in the U.S.
have sought to represent cultural tradition in their articulations
of an ethnic subjectivity, in Chinese as well as in English. In
assessing both the dynamics and the politics of poetic expression
by writers engaging with a specific cultural heritage, the study
develops a general theory of ethnic literary production that
clarifies the significance of "Asian American" literature in
relation to both other forms of U.S. "minority discourse," as well
as canonical "American" literature more generally. At the same
time, it maps an expanded textual arena and a new methodology for
Asian American literary studies that can be further explored by
scholars of other traditions.
examines the various transpacific
signifying strategies by which poets of Chinese descent in the U.S.
have sought to represent cultural tradition in their articulations
of an ethnic subjectivity, in Chinese as well as in English. In
assessing both the dynamics and the politics of poetic expression
by writers engaging with a specific cultural heritage, the study
develops a general theory of ethnic literary production that
clarifies the significance of "Asian American" literature in
relation to both other forms of U.S. "minority discourse," as well
as canonical "American" literature more generally. At the same
time, it maps an expanded textual arena and a new methodology for
Asian American literary studies that can be further explored by
scholars of other traditions.
Yao discusses a range of works, including Ezra Pound's Cathay and
the Angel Island poems. He examines the careers of four
contemporary Chinese/American poets: Ha Jin, Li-young Lee, Marilyn
Chin, and John Yau, each of whom bears a distinctive relationship
to the linguistic and cultural tradition he or she seeks to
represent. Specifically, Yao investigates the range of rhetorical
and formal strategies by which these writers have sought to
incorporate Chinese culture and, especially, language in their
works. Combining such analysis with extensive social
contextualization,
Yao discusses a range of works, including Ezra Pound's Cathay and
the Angel Island poems. He examines the careers of four
contemporary Chinese/American poets: Ha Jin, Li-young Lee, Marilyn
Chin, and John Yau, each of whom bears a distinctive relationship
to the linguistic and cultural tradition he or she seeks to
represent. Specifically, Yao investigates the range of rhetorical
and formal strategies by which these writers have sought to
incorporate Chinese culture and, especially, language in their
works. Combining such analysis with extensive social
contextualization,Foreign Accents
Foreign Accents delineates an
historical poetics of Chinese American verse from the early
twentieth century to the present.
delineates an
historical poetics of Chinese American verse from the early
twentieth century to the present.
