A River of ‘Han’: Eastern Tragedy in a Western Land
A Study of Korean American Literature
by Stephen Joyce
Hardback (Published)
(May 2015)
ISBN: 9783825364588
5.28 x 8.27 inches
Price: $59.00
On back order
Is there a non-Western form of tragedy? This volume argues that the Korean concept of han should be considered an Eastern tragic vision which is gaining prominence in the West through the critically acclaimed works of diasporic writers such as Nobel Prize-nominee Richard E. Kim, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Chang-rae Lee. Through close readings of the works of leading Korean American authors, the book explicates the philosophical, historical, and postcolonial roots of ‘han’ and its distinctive aesthetics in contrast to classical Western tragedy. It then examines how specific authors deploy this concept to portray the cultural conditions of Asian Americans and offers powerful insights into the interplay of cultural memory and aesthetics. Finally, the tragic vision offers a counterpoint to many of the optimistic visions of social change that underpin contemporary theories of ethnic or postcolonial fiction and offers a critical perspective on foundational theoretical assumptions.
- By (author) Stephen Joyce
Other Titles in this Series
Crossroads in American Studies
Transnational and Biocultural Encounters. Essays in Honor of Rudiger Kunow
Volume 269
The Native American Declaration of Independence
William Apess's Reflections of Ethnic Consciousness
Volume 156
The Culture of Corporeality
Aesthetic Experience and the Embodiment of America, 1945-1960
Volume 151
Walking in the Wilderness
The Peripatetic Tradition in Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Painting
Volume 134
Transnational Mediations
Negotiating Popular Culture between Europe and the United States
Volume 261
American Studies/Shifting Gears
A Publication of the DFG Research Network 'The Futures of (European) American Studies'
Volume 185
Migration – Miscegenation – Transculturation
Writing Multicultural America into the Twentieth Century
Volume 114
Temporality in American Filmic Autobiography
Cinema, Automediality and Grammatology with 'Film Portrait' and 'Joyce at 34'
Volume 187
The Americanization of Human Rights
Iranian, African, and Chinese Lives in American Autobiography
Volume 290
Faith Matters
Religion, Ethnicity, and Survival in Louise Erdrich's and Toni Morrison's Fiction
Volume 149
Narrative Instability
Destabilizing Identities, Realities, and Textualities in Contemporary American Popular Culture
Volume 305
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