Negotiated Identities and Female Personal Space in Thai American Adolescent Literature

This essay explores the elusive concept of a "whole" self and female "space" for Thai and American-born Thai adolescent women. This concept of a "true" self is complexly tied to the intergenerational relationships with their grandmothers. The search for a Thai female self is captured in Visalaya Hirunpidok's "Yai" and Minfong Ho's Rice without Rain. As the granddaughters struggle with negotiated identities, which are constituted in differing historical and social contexts, they engage in a continuous process of self-discovery. The literary analysis of these young adult narratives is grounded in this phenomenon of finding one's self and space in society.