LITERATURES OF THE ASIAN DIASPORA
A FOCUS GRANT PROJECT in
Comparative Literature at Penn State
CULTURAL CONTEXTS:
GLOBALIZATION AND WORLD LITERATURE
Our reconsideration of the literatures of the Asian diaspora is part of the intellectual framework of globalization and the new interest in world literature (which we are pursuing institutionally in a variety of ways). A few indications of these related trends in American scholarly and institutional contexts may be mentioned here. At the juncture between scholarship and teaching, several new textbooks that influence the cultural understanding of thousands of college students show a broadened international and transnational approach. We may mention just one such anthology, the forthcoming large project The Longman Anthology of World Literature (edited by David Damrosch of Columbia University and Djelal Kadir of our department, forthcoming 2003). Recent conferences of the Association of Departments and Programs of Comparative Literature (ADPCL), the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), and the Modern Language Association (MLA) have featured sessions on world literature, addressing questions such as “whose world?” and “whose literature?” The January 2001 issue of the journal PMLA and the Spring 2002 issue of the journal Comparative Literature focused on the globalization of literature, as does the Spring 2003 issue of Comparative Literature Studies, a journal edited in our department. This growing interest in world literature clearly corresponds to the increased emphasis on globalism, international awareness, and multiculturalism in American colleges and universities.
Within this framework of transnationalism and globalization, in the U.S. one of the fastest growing of areas of interest is the Asian diaspora. This focus, whether in economics, demographics, political arenas, or the humanities, is a natural concomitant of the increasing importance of people of Asian heritages within the U.S. The year 2000 census, for example, shows, a 48.3% increase since 1990 in the number of U.S. residents who reported Asian alone as their race, and a 72.2% increase in the number reporting Asian alone or in combination (U.S. Census Data, http://www.census.gov/ population/cen2000/phc-t1/tab04.pdf, Table 4).
This situation is not limited to the U.S. Evidence of the Asian diaspora can also be found in Latin America, where, for example, Brazil has the world’s largest population of Japanese descent, outside Japan itself (New York Times, 11/17/02, A4); in the Caribbean, where the cultures of Trinidad, for instance, include a substantial Indian component; in Europe, where ethnic groups of Asian descent are found in England, Germany, and other countries; in Africa, especially East Africa and South Africa; and finally within Asia itself, where there are communities of Korean descent in Japan, Khazak minority communities in China, Chinese communities in Indonesia, etc. Further, the diasporic experience is not necessarily one-way. We will also address the issue of diasporic return: for example, since 1990 nearly a quarter of a million Brazilians of Japanese descent have moved (back) to Japan (NY Times 11/27/01 A4). Wherever people go, of course, their experiences are reflected in literature.
In many colleges and universities across the U.S., attention to Asian and Asian-American literatures is expanding, reflecting both the increasing presence of people of Asian heritage within the U.S., and our awareness of the importance of Asia worldwide. In U.S. curricular and academic structures, there has characteristically been a differentiation of fields: Asian literatures are often taught within an Asian Studies context, while Asian-American literature and other literatures of the Asian diaspora are often taught within the context of the individual regions or nations in which they are found. Those are valid, indeed essential, models. We will use them and also explore a third model, that of Asian literatures as part of a world literature paradigm.
In this model, the “new literatures” of the Asian diaspora are not necessarily separated from the older and continuing literatures of Asia itself. Nor are they necessarily separated from other examples of Asian culture as it has become geographically dispersed. When we read or teach, we can pursue any or all of these contexts as appropriate. What is appropriate may depend upon ourselves as scholars and teachers, our colleagues and students, and the particular course we may be teaching, as well as upon the characteristics of the literary text. When Yoko Tawada writes in German, for instance, her work is more likely to be read as part of “German” literature; when she writes in Japanese, it is more likely to be read as part of “Japanese” literature — yet in either case her work can also belong to Asian diasporic literature, and to other conceptual paradigms such as “the postmodern novel” or “world literature by women.” Our project undertakes such a pluralistic approach.
Cultural Contexts: Globalization and World Literature
Mini Conference, June 19-21, 2003
Syllabi for Teaching the Literatures of the Asian Diaspora
Other Resources: Suggested Readings
Comparative Literature at Penn State
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