Visions of Whiteness in Selected Works of Asian American Literature

Download or read book Visions of Whiteness in Selected Works of Asian American Literature written by Klara Szmańko and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-07 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author Toni Morrison stressed the need to analyze race in American literature by white authors by shifting focus "from the racial object to the racial subject." Representations of whiteness in certain works by Asian American authors reveal what happens when the visual dynamics of ethnography are reversed, and those persons often considered as objects--Asian Americans, other minorities--are allowed to see and judge those who so often objectify them. This study emphasizes social power structures, the aesthetics of whiteness and transformational identity politics. Works examined include Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior (1976) and China Men (1980), and The Fifth Book of Peace (2003); Leonard Chang's The Fruit 'N Food (1996); and, Joy Kogawa's Obasan (1981).