초록 열기/닫기 버튼
Since its early beginnings, Asian American literary productions have been expected to adhere to certain set expectations and guidelines. As social documents, Asian American works were thought to directly or indirectly reflect the Asian American immigrant experience. Added atop this, Asian American writers were asked to fulfill roles as 'unofficial' spokespersons for their respective ethnic groups, thereby obligating them not only to introduce the general American reading public to the history and culture of their respective ethnic groups but also do so in a positive light. This has placed an exorbitant amount of pressure on the Asian American writers. Consequently in recent years, an ever growing number of American writers of Asian descent are actively seeking to escape the confines of ethnic identification, by either producing works altogether devoid of recognizable ethnic signatures or by deliberately defocusing ethnic elements within their works so as to make them incidental. To provide substance to this new trend in Asian American literature, this paper seeks to apply historian David Hollinger's notion of 'postethnicity,' as a viable alternative to the pluralistic ideals of multiculturalism. This paper examines the implications, as well as the ramifications, of 'postethnicity' on the shape and tonality of Asian American literature, both now and beyond.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
Asian American Literature, Postethnicity, David Hollinger, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ethnography
