CFP: Asian Am Lit and Trauma (9/14/06; NEMLA, 3/1/07-3/4/07)
This panel session will address how historical, cultural, and personal traumas haunt Asian American authors, characters, and narrative structures. Furthermore, how do historical traumas manifest themselves in Asian American literary narratives and through bodies in literature? Why are historical traumas and personal/sexual/bodily traumas so often simultaneously narrated in Asian American literature? Is this phenomenon of trauma 'haunting' the present experienced differently by male and female Asian American characters? How can we expand the field of trauma studies by focusing specifically on the 'working-out' of trauma in Asian American literature?