Becoming American

Jeongsub Nam s comparative study of Shepard s Fool for Love, Far North, and Silent Tongue, and Louis Chu and Wayne Wang s Eat a Bowl of Tea and Maxine Hong Kingston s The Woman Warrior and China Men reveals a crucial difference between European American experiences and Asian American experiences in the American West. Symbolic castration and the masculine (social) covering up of the castration, dramatized in the Shepard s play and films, differentiate European American experiences from Asian American experiences which are characterized by social castration and symbolization to go beyond the castration in the aforementioned Asian American texts. The former deconstruct the social covering up of symbolic castration, while the latter deconstruct social castration in search of a full symbolization. This crucial difference is caused by the hierarchical differences in their social statuses and historical experiences in America.

Autorentext

Jeongsub Nam has taught Asian American & Korean related courses and modern British & American drama courses. He currently holds a tenure-track position at Yeungnam University, S. Korea. His research interests include American theater & film, Asian American studies, psychoanalysis, Korean film, and film adaptation of literature.

Klappentext

Jeongsub Nam's comparative study of Shepard's Fool for Love, Far North, and Silent Tongue, and Louis Chu and Wayne Wang's Eat a Bowl of Tea and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and China Men reveals a crucial difference between European American experiences and Asian American experiences in the American West. Symbolic castration and the masculine (social) covering up of the castration, dramatized in the Shepard's play and films, differentiate European American experiences from Asian American experiences which are characterized by social castration and symbolization to go beyond the castration in the aforementioned Asian American texts. The former deconstruct the social covering up of symbolic castration, while the latter deconstruct social castration in search of a full symbolization. This crucial difference is caused by the hierarchical differences in their social statuses and historical experiences in America.