Acknowledgements Table of Contents Introduction 1. Reading Assimilation and the American Dream as Transnational Narratives 2. They Came on Buses: "GuyaneseOpportunities" as a Contemporary Americanization Program 3. "Stretched over dark femaleness": Three South Asian Novels of Americanization 4. "How to be Indian": Independent Films about Second Generation South Asian Americans Conclusion
A variety of immigrant narratives probe the dynamic process of South Asian Americanization
anupama jain has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Union College, and Colby College. Her main academic interests are Anglophone and American narrative, postcolonial theory, utopianism, and social justice.
"[j]ain shows how the literary and cinematic works she studies represent these aspirations to attain the 'American dream,' the ways of achieving them, and often of failing to do so; she also explores the agency available to fictional representatives of this community and the profound ambivalence many of them felt, be they Hindu, Muslim, Parsee, etc. [j]ain is a perceptive reader and elegant writer, and her observations on subjects' representation of the South Asian diaspora's urgent desire to belong, coupled with their 'audacious refusal to become [America's] Other,' deserves a wide readership. Summing Up: Highly recommended." Choice "A sprawling study that combines ethnography, literary theory, and film criticism, jain's book looks closely at narratives of South Asian American identity that circulate through the media, fiction, and film...jain [provides] a series of skillful readings of diasporic fiction and films... [her] reading of Bharati Mukherjee's work, in particular, is compelling... Jain's book doesn't offer any easy answers, but instead gives us more questions: What exactly are the stories of national, racial, and ethnic identity that we have been telling ourselves? Who is allowed into America's national narratives? And on whose terms?" Hyphen magazine
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
