Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America

This text examines Asian America - its idealization by its intellectuals, its saturation with capitalist practices, and the challenges posed by its ideological diversity. Using literature as a tool, the author suggests that Asian American intellectuals must examine their own assumptions.
This volume examines the idealization of Asian America by its intellectuals, the saturation of Asian America with capitalist practices, and the challenges posed by Asian America's ideological diversity. Viet Nguyen argues that Asian American intellectuals need to examine their own assumptions about race, culture, and politics, and he makes his case through the example of literature, which still remains a critical arena of cultural production for Asian Americans. Significantly, in examining Asian American literature, what we find is that the literature embodies the complexities, conflicts, and potential future options of Asian American culture.