ENGL 047C. Asian American Gender/Sexuality/Species

Cross-listed as ASAM 047C.
Asian Americans are typically represented as either the model minority, the immigrant whose successful assimilation serves to discipline other minorities, or the yellow peril, the eternal foreigner threatening to invade from within. How are these figures not only racial but also gendered and sexual, consistent with constructions of the hardworking but racially “castrated” Asian man and the desirable because “domestic” Asian woman? To what extent are these tropes premised on animality, rooted in the fear that the other may not be human, and that this other will encroach upon the self, reveal the human as other? Through an examination of the representation and performance of gender and sexuality in Asian American literature and culture, this course considers the intertwined constitution and contradictions of race, gender, and sexuality while keeping an eye on the animal that serves as their limits. We will focus on U.S. representations of Asian masculinity and femininity, the association of Asians in the (post)colony with appetite, and Asian reclamations of the child and the queer along with the animal. Readings may include M. Butterfly, Bruce Lee and Wang TV clips, Charlie Chan is Dead 2, The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R. R. Co, The Joy Luck Club, ”Happiness: A Manifesto,” The Book of Salt, Dogeaters, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Hypersexuality of Race, Eating Asian America, and Dangerous Crossings.
20th/21st c.
Prerequisite: At least one W course.
Recommended before or while taking the course: ENGL 47A, GSST 001, or HIST 010.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for GSST.
Spring 2024. Ku.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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