Asian American Literature and the Environment

<p>This book is a ground-breaking transnational study of representations of the environment in Asian American literature. Extending and renewing Asian American studies and ecocriticism by drawing the two fields into deeper dialogue it brings Asian American writers to the center of ecocritical studies. This collection demonstrates the distinctiveness of Asian American writers’ positions on topics of major concern today: environmental justice identity and the land war environments consumption urban environments and the environment and creativity. Represented authors include Amy Tan Maxine Hong Kingston Ruth Ozeki Ha Jin Fae Myenne Ng Le Ly Hayslip Lan Cao Mitsuye Yamada Lawson Fusao Inada Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston Milton Murayama Don Lee and Hisaye Yamamoto. These writers provide a range of perspectives on the historical social psychological economic philosophical and aesthetic responses of Asian Americans to the environment conceived in relation to labor racism immigration domesticity global capitalism relocation pollution violence and religion. Contributors apply a diversity of critical frameworks including critical radical race studies counter-memory studies ecofeminism and geomantic criticism. The book presents a compelling and timely green perspective through which to understand key works of Asian American literature and leads the field of ecocriticism into neglected terrain.</p>