At the Vanishing Point: Theater and Asian/American Critique

This essay elaborates a notion of a "subjectless" Asian/American critique, following the work of Kandice Chuh and others but in relation to the specific aesthetic devices available through the theater. This Asian/American critique builds on a Deleuzian relationality specifically developed through a formalist interpretation of playwright Naomi Iizuka's 36 Views and At the Vanishing Point. By placing Asian American studies, theater, and the Deleuzian notion of the fold into a critical constellation, the project rethinks the value of these terms and their utility in unpacking aesthetic discourses and geopolitics.