ENGL 047A. Asian American Literature and Culture

Cross-listed as ASAM 047A
To what extent does Asian American invisibility betray a constitutive role in U.S. history? Through literary and cultural texts as well as ethnic historiography and criticism, this course charts the shifting place of Asians in modern America by examining im/migration, empire’s wars, and the interracial future/diaspora. In the process, it will shed light on the different subject positions that Asians have occupied in the West-as transnational holders of capital, immigrants, coolies, migrant laborers, colonized “nationals,” internees, refugees, diasporic and hybrid subjects of color, alien suspects, and activists. In providing a critical history of Asian America, this course expands the field’s foundational concerns toward a transpacific and continental Asia/America while exploring minor adoptions and resistances of America, including of its aesthetic and social movements. Readings may include Crazy Rich Asians, The Year of the Dragon, America is in the Heart, Philippine-American War political cartoons, Obasan, Dictee, We Should Never Meet, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Tropic of Orange, Homeland Elegies, Robot Stories, Immigrant Acts, Coolies and Cane, Impossible Subjects, The Oriental Obscene, Partly Colored, and Alien Capital.
20th/21st c.
Prerequisite: At least one W course.
Recommended before or while taking the course: HIST 05B or HIST 010.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for ASIA, GLBL-paired.
Fall 2023. Ku.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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