Critical Negotiations

The book provides a new way to understand the often unspoken, silenced history of the Asian diaspora experience in the U.S. as articulated in fiction, especially the experiences of suppressed ethnic women who are subordinated by the powers of a male-dominated mainstream American society.

In a global context where the speed and volume of migration have continuously increased, communicative failure shows up in cultural conflicts as thematized in Asian American women's literature. When the text surface suggests that migrant identity is flexibly hybrid, are there deeper textual layers? This book probes the limitations not only of the usual methods of literary study, but of Western constructions of the experience of loss and deprivation. Can literary interpretation gain from adapting new conceptualizations developed in the science-oriented field of intercultural communication studies? A critical negotiation concept opens unexpected analytical potential with far-reaching implications.

Autorentext

Weiwei Shen graduated from Hangzhou Dianzi University and received her postgraduate education at Zhejiang University. Sponsored by the Chinese Scholarship Council, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Bayreuth, gaining Co-tutelle doctoral degrees both from Bayreuth and from Shanghai International Studies University. She is currently employed as Associate Professor in the English Department of Hangzhou Medical College.

Inhalt

Negotiation Mindfulness intercultural identity diasporic home struggle trade off rub off power imposition