Asian American Literature in the International Context Readings on Fiction, Poetry and Performance

Asian American literature offers a rich field of investigation because in it we comprehend transcultural literary phenomena beyond geographic, national, ethnic, and even linguistic boundaries. Recent scholarship consistently points to the need to expand and deepen the approaches to this complex set of concerns and strategies.Asian American writers have been aware for a long time that self-definitions and authentic cultural representation must emerge from their own individualistic backgrounds. The diverse forms within the distinct ethnicities embraced by the term "Asian American culture" offer a convergence of old traditions and new cultures, of immigrant translation and historical appropriation, that often finds creative expression in a synthesis of myth and the modern consciousness through the use of innovative forms of perception and renegotiations of cultural heritage in the plural. Its contextualization in literature inspires continued study and a widening theoretical framework from within which to analyze particular texts. The interactive processes of the creation of Asian American literature impose new strategies of reading characterized by a continual call to reorientation and a new conditioning of the determinants of meaning. The remarkable contributions of Asian American literature have made their mark outside the boundaries of the United States as well, and in many ways the present collection of essays is the result.Davis, Rocio G. is the author of 'Asian American Literature in the International Context Readings on Fiction, Poetry and Performance' with ISBN 9783825857103 and ISBN 3825857107.