Extravagant Texts: Reading the World Through Asian American Literature

In this course we study a body of writings that self-consciously move beyond the topics and genres with which Asian American literature has traditionally been associated—that are, in Maxine Hong’s Kingston’s formulation, “extravagant.” We explore works that adopt a transnational or diasporic perspective and that are written in such genres as magical realism, speculative fiction, and poetry. In addition to more conventional concerns like racism or immigration, these works also address such issues as empire, war, mixed-race identity, environmentalism, adoption, and sexuality.