Inhuman citizenship [[electronic resource] ] : traumatic enjoyment and Asian American literature / / Juliana Chang

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910463432803321
• Autore: Chang Juliana
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Minneapolis, : University of Minnesota Press, 2012
• ISBN: 1-4529-4702-3; 0-8166-8212-7
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (252 p.)
• Disciplina: 810.9/895073
• Soggetti: American literature - Asian American authors - History and criticism; Asian Americans in literature; American literature - 20th century - History and criticism; American literature - 21st century - History and criticism; Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature; Melancholy in literature; Electronic books.
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Machine generated contents note: -- Contents -- Introduction: Inhuman Citizenship -- 1. Melancholic Citizenship: The Living Dead and Fae Myenne Ng's Bone -- 2. Shameful Citizenship: Animal Jouissance and Brian Ascalon Roley's American Son -- 3. Romantic Citizenship: Immigrant-Nation Romance, the Antifetish, and Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker -- 4. Perverse Citizenship: The Death Drive and Suki Kim's The Interpreter -- Coda -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: "In Inhuman Citizenship, Juliana Chang claims that literary representations of Asian American domesticity may be understood as symptoms of America's relationship to its national fantasies and to the "jouissance"--a Lacanian term signifying a violent yet euphoric shattering of the self--that both overhangs and underlies those fantasies. In the national imaginary, according to Chang, racial subjects are often perceived as the source of jouissance, which they supposedly embody through their excesses of violence, sexuality, anger, and ; ecstasy--excesses that threaten to overwhelm the social order.To examine her argument that racism ascribes too much, rather than a lack of, humanity, Chang analyzes domestic accounts by Asian American writers, including Fae Myenne Ng's Bone, Brian Ascalon Roley's American Son, Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker, and Suki Kim's The Interpreter. Employing careful reading and Lacanian psychoanalysis, Chang finds sites of excess and shock: they are not just narratives of trauma; they produce trauma as well. They render Asian Americans as not only the objects but also the vehicles and agents of inhuman suffering. And, claims Chang, these novels disturb yet strangely exhilarate the reader through characters who are objects of racism and yet inhumanly enjoy their suffering and the suffering of others.Through a detailed investigation of "family business" in works of Asian American life, Chang shows that by identifying with the nation's psychic disturbance, Asian American characters ethically assume responsibility for a national unconscious that is all too often disclaimed. "--