112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

This page is about the 2014 conference. For 2015 conference info, go to PAMLA 2015.

Asian American Literature I

Session Chair: 
Sharon Tang-Quan, Independent Scholar
Time: 
Session 2: Friday 10:45am-12:15pm
Location: 
RCC Meeting Room 1
Topic Area: 
Asian American Literature

Presenters/Papers:

  1. Killing Chickens: Violence and Assimilation in Gish Jen's Typical American

    Nina Ahn, California State University, Northridge
    In Gish Jen’s Typical American, violence – particularly against women - is articulated as an inseparable and deeply problematic part of the assimilative process. I argue, in fact, that the “accident” at the end of the novel is no accident at all and is instead an attempted murder, a culmination of Ralph Chang’s desperate attempt to assert control over his family and punish his sister for supplanting him as patriarch.   

  2. A Ride to America: Cars in Gish Jen's Typical American

    Chia-feng Chang, Northern Illinois University
    Cars in Gish Jen's Typical American symbolize the Chinese immigrants' mobility in assimilation. When the Changs pursue their American Dream, cars display the complexity of their American experiences, and also demonstrate their ability to balance both their Chinese and American identities. 

  3. Transnational Abjection: Performance and Politics of Adoption Depression in Jane Jeong Trenka’s The Language of Blood and Fugitive Visions

    Joseph Kai Hang Cheang, "University of California, Riverside"
    This paper will de-pathologize adoptee writer Jane Jeong Trenka's depression depicted in her autobiographies by reframing it as a productive site which allows her and her readers to realize that her intra-subjectivity is an inter-subjectivity which she shares with her biological and adoptive parents, as well as the sending and receiving countries. 
Session Cancelled: 
No