Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America

by Viet Thanh Nguyen

In Race and Literature and Politics in Asian America , Viet Nguyen argues that Asian American intellectuals have idealized Asian America, ignoring its saturation with capitalist practices. This idealization of Asian America means that Asian American intellectuals can neither grapple with their culture's ideological diversity nor recognize their own involvement with capitalist practices such as the selling of racial identity. Making his case through the example of literature, which remains a critical arena of cultural production for Asian Americans, Nguyen demonstrates that literature embodies the complexities, conflicts, and potential future options of Asian American culture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Asia, Asian Literature, Race, Books About Books, Criticism

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. He is the author of “The Sympathizer,” awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. His most recent book, “To Save and to Destroy,” explores the idea of being an outsider. He is also the author of the short story collection “The Refugees;” the nonfiction book “Nothing Ever Dies,” a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award; the children's book “Simone” along with illustrator Minnie Phan; the sequel to “The Sympathizer,” “The Committed;” the nonfiction book “A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial,” longlisted for the National Book Award; and is the editor of an anthology of refugee writing, “The Displaced,” as well as a co-editor of “The Cleaving: Vietnamese Writers in the Diaspora.” He is a University Professor and the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

i so so appreciate what Nguyen is doing with this book, and that he did it in the early 2000s. i'm less interested in how he's reading the literature, but more in the intervention he's making into asian american studies/politics. he is calling out this infuriatingly moderate, navel-gazing strain of asian american politics, that is very much a part of asian american cultural production. even today, our public discourse has not gotten very far beyond the model minority myth. listen to Viet Thanh Nguyen!

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Practitioners of Asian American culture and politics, as they strive to create a space for Asian Americans in the American nation, must then ask themselves to what end that space—Asian America—is created."

Through the lens of examining Asian-American literature, Nguyen poses broader questions - largely without answers - about how Asian-American identity is constructed as supporting or opposing assimilationist or resisting narratives. Implicitly, he challenges organising uncritically around identity, citing identity as itself a place of contention. But he does this far more eloquently, and with a detailed examination of the various adaptative and flexible strategies deployed in Asian-American literature to portray communities and to secure a place within broader society. It is interesting, if very dense, and it can be slow going when the Judith Butler quotes are the easiest to parse. However, the language is needed for precision, given the ambition and challenge presented.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read something this dense and scholarly. I felt like I was back in school, reading about hegemony and all that. But I liked it. It was so insightful to read about Asian American novels of the early and mid-1900s thru the 00s and the critique on the model minority discourse.

[Owlseyes]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-am...

[Business Idlestuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read if you ask me!!!

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

viet thanh nguyen's mind works in ways i cannot comprehend. this was my first exposure to his more academic work as opposed to his narratives, and although i can still see very similar tones in both this was a whole other beast. he explores concepts of identity, like race and sex, and how their intersectionality can be applicable to sociopolitical topics, like anti-colonialism and armed resistance. his theorizing on ethnic entrepreneurship was especially interesting to me, considering i'd never heard the term before, and actually made something click in my brain regarding identity politics and weaponization of identity. a must-read for anyone interested in the field of asian american studies!

[Jessica (JT) Thelen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some chapters are definitely better than others, but the good chapters are GOOD CHAPTERS.

[Jun Ogata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drawing on the diverse, complex history of Asian American literature, Viet Thanh Nguyen provides us with criticism to transition us into the future of Asian American discourse. It's genius. Without acknowledging the information stated in this criticism, our body is destined to remain commodified under capitalism and ultimately suffer. Please, receive his message and rise beyond the barriers that seem to hold us stagnant. We need more analysis like this circulating in our communities. The Asian American community needs to recognize its complexity and understand the diversity of its minds.