Tell This Silence: Asian American Women Writers and the Politics of Speech

Front Matter

Tell This Silence Asian American Women Writers and the Politics of Speech Patti Duncan University of Iowa Press Iowa City University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 2004 by the University of Iowa Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Design by April Leidig-Higgins http://www.uiowa.edu/uiowapress No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. The publication of this book was generously supported by the University of Iowa Foundation. Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Duncan, Patti, 1970– Tell this silence: Asian American women writers and the politics of speech / by Patti Duncan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: The uses of silence and the will to unsay—What makes an American ?: histories of immigration and exclusion of Asians in the United States in Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men—White sound and silences from stone: discursive silences in the internment writings of Mitsuye Yamada and Joy Kogawa— Cartographies of silence: language and nation in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée— Silence and public discourse: interventions into dominant national and sexual narratives in Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman and Anchee Min’s Red Azalea—Tell this silence: Asian American women’s narratives, gender, nation, and history.  0-87745-856-1 (cloth) 1. American literature—Asian American authors—History and criticism. 2. American literature—Women authors—History and criticism. 3. Asian American women—Intellectual life. 4. Politics and literature—United States. 5. Women and literature—United States. 6. Asian American women in literature . 7. Asian Americans in literature. 8. Sex role in literature. 9. Silence in literature. I. Title. . 2004 810.9'895—dc21 2003050739 04 05 06 07 08  5 4 3 2 1 ...