National abjection

the Asian American body onstage

192 pages

English language

Published May 28, 2002 by Duke University Press.

ISBN:
978-0-8223-2937-4
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OCLC Number:
49805852

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National Abjection explores the vexed relationship between "Asian Americanness" and "Americanness” through a focus on drama and performance art. Karen Shimakawa argues that the forms of Asian Americanness that appear in U.S. culture are a function of national abjection—a process that demands that Americanness be defined by the exclusion of Asian Americans, who are either cast as symbolic foreigners incapable of integration or Americanization or distorted into an “honorary” whiteness. She examines how Asian Americans become culturally visible on and off stage, revealing the ways Asian American theater companies and artists respond to the cultural implications of this abjection. Shimakawa looks at the origins of Asian American theater, particularly through the memories of some of its pioneers. Her examination of the emergence of Asian American theater companies illuminates their strategies for countering the stereotypes of Asian Americans and the lack of visibility of Asian American performers within the theater world. …

1 edition

Subjects

  • Asian Americans -- Ethnic identity
  • Asian Americans -- Race identity
  • Body, Human -- Social aspects -- United States
  • Orientalism -- United States
  • American drama -- Asian American authors
  • Performance art -- United States
  • Abjection in literature
  • Racism in literature
  • United States -- Race relations
  • United States -- Race relations -- Psychological aspects

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