Concubines and second sons: stereotypes, transnationalism, and the production of identity
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Dorothy Louise Kuykendal (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Keith Cushman
Abstract: The scope of my project identifies and critiques the fractured subjectivities of fictional characters through a transnational and transcultural lens. I focus my argument around characters who live in or originate from East and Southeast Asia. Critically, I build upon Edward Said's well-known binarist separation of latent and manifest Orientalism in order to argue that such a separation is unnecessary and in fact unproductive. I also engage with Homi Bhabha's work on stereotypes and that work's roots in Said's Orientalism (1978) in order to argue for a similar complication of Bhabha. What Bhabha applies to a post-/colonial model I wish to apply to a transnational, transcultural one in order to examine which stereotypes still have great force and influence, perhaps disproportionate, over how we relate to our fellow human beings. I approach both of these theorists through a series of close readings of drama, film, and fiction. Ultimately, I posit that those who can successfully create narratives of identity can capably manipulate stereotypes to their own advantage and then subvert them, or else re-shape that discursive framework and define themselves in different terms. However, the dissertation is particularly concerned with characters who have a harder time subverting or escaping stereotypes. These characters who struggle and fail to define themselves inevitably meet one of two fates: exile or suicide.
Concubines and second sons: stereotypes, transnationalism, and the production of identity
PDF (Portable Document Format)
572 KB
Created on 8/1/2009
Views: 6138
Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2009
- Keywords
- Asia, Asian americans, Stereotypes, Transnationalism, Edward Said, Homi Bhaba
- Subjects
- Postcolonialism in literature.
- Asians in literature.
- Asian Americans in literature.
- Stereotypes (Social Psychology) in literature.
- Race in literature.
- Minorities in literature.
- Asia $x In literature.