***AS A PART OF THE 18th SAAS Conference “Negotiating Identity and Power: Resistance, Rebellion, and Resilience in U.S. Literature and Culture”***

https://saas-web.org/saas-oviedo-2027/

In her book Contesting Genres in Contemporary Asian American Fiction (2010) Betsy Huang defends that genre fiction has become “the loci where some of the most compelling contemporary Asian American writers contest genre imperatives to disrupt well-worn ‘generic’ narratives of Asian America.” Following this idea, this panel seeks to examine different strategies writers employ to address and confront systemic racial and gendered violence against Asian Americans in the United States across different genres. The memoir, magical realism, crime fiction, and speculative fiction are some of the genres that Asian American writers have explored and often hybridized; subverting genre expectations has become a tool and a strategy of resistance within traditionally white literary landscapes. In this way, Asian American writers defy racist practices, confront Orientalist scripts, and challenge the gendered dimension of antiAsian narratives, such as the feminization, sexualization and fetishization of Asian bodies. We intend to create a conversation around these strategies and the alternative modes of subjectivity and relationality that Asian American writers propose through their work. With special attention to renewed anti-Asian sentiments in the US political context and intensifying tensions surrounding race, identity, and immigration, we invite exploration of the political impact of works that confront dominant narratives by centering Asian American voices and bodies. We welcome contributions that explore these dynamics across a range of genres and media, including fiction, poetry, and film.

In person ONLY. Please send your proposal using paper proposal form available at https://saas-web.org/saas-oviedo-2027/