Browsing by Subject "Asian American Studies"
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Item THe fantasy of Asian America : identity, ideology, and desire.(2009-07) Kim, Chang-HeeThis dissertation reconsiders the extant critique of Asian American identity politics in Asian American literary studies. The intellectual "war of position" initiated over claiming the legitimacy of Asian America has been articulated in the combined terms of both race and gender. I argue that the way in which the war of position is articulated in the binaries between nationalist and feminist critiques and between race-bound identity politics and non-identity politics is a misguided framework for understanding the point at issue in Asian American literary studies. The intra-racial anxiety about the identity-based politics of Asian America originates not so much in the identitarian distinction between the real and the fake or between the good subject and the bad subject; rather, it is attributed to a discursive gap in the self-affirmation of "what Asian America is" within the larger framework of American nationalism. This gap results from the variable extent to which Asian Americans make their dynamic relationship--namely, both resisting and collaborating--with American nationalism in relation to which Asian America came into being both autonomously and subordinately. Within the contextual framework, this dissertation explores the way in which the stereotypes of Asian Americans operate as fundamental to the constitution of both Asian America and white America. I make use of psychoanalysis as a methodological tool to analyze the dialectical dynamics between Asians in America and the gaze of white-centered American society where the exotic presence of the former evokes the desire and anxiety of the latter simultaneously. Within this framework, this dissertation collects some representative cultural products of Asian America as touchstones of Asian American representation. I consider the collection an ideological matrix of the symbolic reality that constitutes the uneven relations of our lives in terms of race, gender, and sexuality and takes them for granted. Simultaneously, this collection shows how both white and Asian Americas negotiate with each other to attend to both intra-racial and inter-racial anxiety and trauma caused by their racial, cultural, sexual, geographical encounters at various levels of different historical and political contexts.Item Korean looks, American eyes: Korean American adoptees, race, culture and nation.(2009-12) Park Nelson, Kim JaThis project positions Korean adoptees as transnational citizens at intersections within race relations in the United States, as emblems of international geopolitical relationships between the United States and South Korea, and as empowered actors, organizing to take control of racial and cultural discourses about Korean adoption. I make connections between transnational exchanges, American race relations, and Asian American experiences. I argue that though the contradictory experience of Korean adoptees, at once inside and outside bounded racial and national categories of "Asian," "White," "Korean," and "American," the limits of these categories may be explored and critiqued. In understanding Korean adoptees as transnational subjects, single-axis racial and national identity are challenged, where individuals have access to membership and/or face exclusion in more than one political or cultural nation. In addition, this work demonstrates the effects of American political and cultural imperialism both abroad and domestically, by elucidating how the acts of empire-building nations are mapped onto individuals though the regulation of immigration and family formation. My methods are interdisciplinary, drawing from traditions that include ethnography, primary historical sources, and literature. My dissertation work uses Korean adoptees' own life stories that I have collected and recorded in three locations: 1) Minnesota, home to the largest concentration of Korean adoptees in the U.S.; 2) the Pacific Northwest, home to the many of the "first wave" of the oldest living Korean adoptees now in their 40s and 50s; and, 3) Seoul, Korea, home to hundreds of adult Korean adoptees who have traveled back to South Korea to live and work. In addition, I use Korean adoptee published narratives, archive materials documenting the early history of transnational adoption, and secondary sources in sociology, social work, psychology and cultural studies to uncover the many layers of national, racial and cultural belonging and significance for and of Korean adoptees.Item Performing Masculinities: The Impact of Racialization, Space, and Cultural Practices on Hmong Immigrant Youth(2014-08) Smalkoski, KariAlthough several research studies have been conducted on second generation Hmong youth and families, little is known about the latest wave of Hmong immigrants, the Wat Tham Krabok (WTK) Hmong, who arrived in the U.S. between 2004-2006. In addition, literature on the Hmong still relies heavily on model minority tropes steeped in meritocracy narratives. This research examines the experiences of WTK Hmong youth who live in predominately African American urban neighborhoods and are bussed to predominately white suburban schools. Three years of ethnographic fieldwork in multiple sites was conducted between 2009-2011 and 2012-2013. The research examines ways that WTK Hmong males, in particular, have been racialized in spaces of institutions which has significantly impacted their relationships with families, attitudes about schooling, and perceptions about their futures. Although youth have experienced vast amounts of parent-child conflict, these experiences are not simplified as intergenerational familial conflict; rather, a complex, dynamic, and critical representation of youths' lives is illuminated through their insights and perspectives told from their point of view. In addition, youths' experiences are analyzed within larger structural structures and processes. Emphasis is given to the everyday violence that Hmong males have experienced in schools. The research problematizes the ways school officials use no tolerance "race neutral" policies which allow violence and misunderstandings to fester between Hmong youth and their African American peers. A significant finding in the research is that WTK Hmong male youth are ignored, unprotected, and experience intensive social isolation in schools and in many cases, their families. In response, youth resist by creating protective spaces which involve alternative masculinities and built-in peer support networks through cultural practices. The analysis extends conventional scholarship of masculinities by exploring how racialized masculinities are a site for discipline and disempowerment of WTK Hmong youth while providing spaces for provisionally empowering forms of agency and resistance through cultural practices. Youth must have access to cultural practices through out-of-school programs as they have the potential to create social capital that connect them to academic success and social integration, offering them opportunities to engage with their families and schools in meaningful ways.