INTRODUCTION

LITERATURES OF THE ASIAN DIASPORA

A FOCUS GRANT PROJECT in

Comparative Literature at Penn State

INTRODUCTION: LITERATURES OF THE ASIAN DIASPORA

In this project, the Department of Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University is bringing together faculty colleagues from five Penn State campuses (we are a large multi-campus system) to consider the Asian diaspora from a literary and cultural perspective, and to map institutional directions for expanding the teaching of this significant and timely material.

In recent years, within the broad intellectual context of globalization, the worldwide importance of the Asian diaspora has become increasingly recognized. Demographically, there are substantial communities of Asian heritage, whether of recent arrival or long establishment, in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, in addition to transnational relocations of Asian peoples within Asia itself, and examples of returning from the diaspora. Wherever people go, of course, literature goes as well.

Within the U.S., the most familiar part of Asian diasporic literature is recent writing by Asian-Americans, which is frequently framed within the paradigm of U.S. ethnic studies. We wish to both build upon this framework, and, at the same time, to consider Asian diasporic literature within global paradigms. In our project the literatures of the Asian diaspora are seen as an important part of the cultural production of the writers’ “new” countries – and also as a transnational form of cultural production that reaches beyond geopolitical boundaries. We consider whether such writers share common characteristics, Asian or diasporic, and how their representation in our literature curricula can be enhanced.

Our NEH-funded project has taken place in the Fall and Spring of 2002-03, with a mini-conference and workshop in summer 2003, and followed up during 2003-04. Some aspects of the project will then continue in the form of an Interdisciplinary Faculty Group on "Asia in the Age of Globalization," funded for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 by Penn State's Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

The NEH Focus Group, which consists primarily of faculty members but does not exclude students, includes discussions; readings in literary texts, theoretical works, and other materials; consultation with guest scholars and with colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, a sister institution; consideration of course curricula of several types; and dissemination through a website and in our classrooms.

For further information about this Project, please see the links below.

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Home

Introduction

Cultural Contexts: Globalization and World Literature

Design of the Project

Institutional Contexts

Project Participants

Special Events

Mini Conference, June 19-21, 2003

Syllabi for Teaching the Literatures of the Asian Diaspora

Other Resources: Suggested Readings

Comparative Literature at Penn State