What are the forces that shape an Asian American subject? This course
examines how different literary works present this particular figure
within crisscrossing networks of race, gender, and class. We will
encounter a wide range of Asian American subjects in novels by Younghill
Kang, Lin Yutang, Frank Chin, Jessica Hagedorn, Bharati Mukherjee, and Fae
Myenne Ng. In addition, we will consider different theoretical models of
subject formation, looking especially at those theorists who try to
account for the minority subject in American culture. In order to provide
a critical framework for these Asian American literary subjects, we will
read essays by Louis Althusser, Judith Butler, Michael Omi and Howard
Winant, and Lisa Lowe.