This Is All I Choose to Tell: History and Hybridity in Vietnamese American Literature (Asian American History & Culture)

✍ Scribed by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 217
• Series: Asian American History & Culture
• Edition: American Literatures Initiative
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In the first book-length study of Vietnamese American literature, Isabelle Thuy Pelaud probes the complexities of Vietnamese American identity and politics. She provides an analytical introduction to the literature, showing how generational differences play out in genre and text. In addition, she asks, can the term Vietnamese American be disassociated from representations of the war without erasing its legacy? Pelaud delineates the historical, social, and cultural terrains of the writing as well as the critical receptions and responses to them. She moves beyond the common focus on the Vietnam war to develop an interpretive framework that integrates post-colonialism with the multi-generational refugee, immigrant, and transnational experiences at the centre of Vietnamese American narratives. Her readings of key works, such as Andrew Pham's Catfish and Mandala and Lan Cao's Monkey Bridge show how trauma, racism, class and gender play a role in shaping the identities of Vietnamese American characters and narrators.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents
......Page 6
Preface
......Page 8
Acknowledgments
......Page 10
Introduction
......Page 16
Part One: Inclusion
......Page 20
1. History
......Page 22
2. Overview
......Page 37
3. Hybridity
......Page 59
Part Two: Interpretation
......Page 76
4. Survival
......Page 78
5. Hope and Despair
......Page 117
6. Reception
......Page 133
Conclusion
......Page 150
Notes
......Page 154
Bibliography
......Page 186
Index
......Page 206