Catachresis: Blu's Hanging and the Epistemology of the Given

Elda Tsou takes the 1998 award controversy as the springboard for a sharp critique of the field's approach to representation as an "epistemology of the given." Suggesting that the field's response to literature reflects deeply held and problematic assumptions about the nature of agency, language and subjectivity, the essay explores the novel as a formal engagement with the trope of catachresis. Demonstrating how both the narrator and controversial Filipino character are staged by the novel as necessary abuses, the essay profoundly alters our understanding of both the novel and Asian American identity politics.