National Abjection , livre ebook

Duke University Press - Shimakawa Karen Shimakawa

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207 pages

English

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National Abjection explores the vexed relationship between "Asian Americanness" and "Americanness" through a focus on drama and performance art. Karen Shimakawa argues that the forms of Asian Americanness that appear in U.S. culture are a function of national abjection-a process that demands that Americanness be defined by the exclusion of Asian Americans, who are either cast as symbolic foreigners incapable of integration or Americanization or distorted into an "honorary" whiteness. She examines how Asian Americans become culturally visible on and off stage, revealing the ways Asian American theater companies and artists respond to the cultural implications of this abjection.Shimakawa looks at the origins of Asian American theater, particularly through the memories of some of its pioneers. Her examination of the emergence of Asian American theater companies illuminates their strategies for countering the stereotypes of Asian Americans and the lack of visibility of Asian American performers within the theater world. She shows how some plays-Wakako Yamauchi's 12-1-A, Frank Chin's Chickencoop Chinaman, and The Year of the Dragon-have both directly and indirectly addressed the displacement of Asian Americans. She analyzes works attempting to negate the process of abjection-such as the 1988 Broadway production of M. Butterfly as well as Miss Saigon, a mainstream production that enacted the process of cultural displacement both onstage and off. Finally, Shimakawa considers Asian Americanness in the context of globalization by meditating on the work of Ping Chong, particularly his East-West Quartet.

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USA

Inglés estadounidense

American English

États-Unis

Asia

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Publié par	Duke University Press
Date de parution	05 décembre 2002
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780822384243
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1298€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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NATIONAL ABJECTION

The Asian American Body Onstage

Karen Shimakawa

Duke University Press Durham & London 

©  Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper  Typeset in Quadraat by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data and permissions information appear on the last printed page of this book.

for my family

CONTENTS

             , ix

       ‘‘It’s not right for a body to know his own origins,’’ 

      ‘‘I should be—American!’’ Abjection and the Asian (American) Body, 

      ‘‘The dance that’s happening’’ Performance, Politics, and Asian American Theatre Companies, 

      ‘‘We’come a Chinatowng, Folks!’’ Resisting Abjection, 

      ‘‘I’ll be here . . . right where you left me’’ Mimetic Abjection/Abject Mimicry, 

      ‘‘Whose history is this, anyway?’’ Changing Geographies in Ping Chong’sEast-West Quartet,

       ‘‘Then we’ll have drama,’’ 

   , 

        , 

  , 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The task of thanking everyone who assisted me in completing this project is a bit daunting and quite humbling, but serves as a warm reminder of the many enriching relationships it has helped cement along the way. Susan Jeﬀords and Shawn Wong were two of the earliest (and therefore most heroic) readers of this manuscript. Their advice and encouragement formed the bedrock for the book, and their ways of thinking (and being) in this profession continue to serve as models for me. The playwrights, theatre administrators, and performers I interviewed were, without exception, generous with their time and energy. These artists are invaluable repositories of historical experience, ﬁrsthand knowledge, and artistic insight, and I am deeply grateful to them for sharing all of these with me. Frank Chin, Ping Chong, Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Mako Iwamatsu, Judith Nihei, Rick Shiomi, and Wakako Yamauchi were incredibly gracious and forthcoming, and I hope the book does their experience (some) justice. Bruce Allardice of Ping Chong and Co., Laura Rawson of Theater Mu, and Pamela Wu of the Asian American Theatre Company were also extremely helpful in pulling together materials for the manuscript. I am also indebted to friends, students, and colleagues at Vanderbilt Univer-sity. Myriam Chancy was (and is) a wonder and an inspiration; Jay Clayton was a much-appreciated booster and wise counselor in the submission process; and my conversations with John Sloop pushed me to think harder, more carefully, and in more materially grounded ways than I could have otherwise. Thank you all—it is a better book, in countless ways, for your collegiality and friendship. I am grateful to Mona Simpson and the Robert Penn Warren Humanities Cen-ter at Vanderbilt University for research assistance, as well as to my cofellows there for their careful and generous readings. Here at the University of California at Davis my list of thank-yous has con-tinued to grow. I came to UC Davis with a background in literature, but my ini-