Research Guides: Asian American Literature: Recommended Books

Interesting Texts

These are some examples of books that you may find interesting. I've included here books that are engaged in cultural criticism, which can provide useful historical context, some works of literary criticism, and some reference works.

If you are looking for additional literary texts, you may want to try some of the anthologies listed on this page.

Critical Books:

To study the ways in which Asian American literature intersects with history and culture, you might find it useful to search for historical analysis as well as literary analysis. Some search terms include, but are not limited to:

Asian Americans — Cultural assimilation
Asian Americans — Ethnic identity
Asian Americans -- History
Asian Americans — Intellectual life — 20th century

Note the call number tendencies:

E 184.O6 — History of the United States — Asian Americans
PS153.A84 — Ethnic American Literature — Asian American

Here is a short list of examples of books you might find:

The Americas of Asian American Literature by Rachel C. Lee
Lee addresses the current debates on the relationship between gender, national identity, and ethnic identity through close analysis of select literary texts, including authors Gish Jen, Jessica Hagedorn, Karen Tei Yamashita, and Carlos Buslosan.
Eating Identities by Wenying Xu
A book-length critique discussing food in literary works authored by Asian American writers.
The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity in Asian American Poetry by Xiaojing Zhou
Zhou analyzes the works of seven Asian American poets through the lens of ethics and critical form. Includes an index of works and terms.
Reading Up by Amy Blair
Call Number: PS153.A84 T73 2006
Series of critical essays with a transnational approach to what Asian American literature is. Essays are by various authors, and separated by genre, including poetry, fiction, and memoir.
Inhuman Citizenship by Juliana Chang
ISBN: 9780816682126
Publication Date: 2012-10-16
In the national imaginary, according to Chang, racial subjects are often perceived as the source of jouissance, which they supposedly embody through their excesses of violence, sexuality, anger, and ecstasy--excesses that threaten to overwhelm the social order.To examine her argument that racism ascribes too much, rather than a lack of, humanity, Chang analyzes domestic accounts by Asian American writers.
Where I Have Never Been by Patricia P. Chu
ISBN: 9781439902257
Publication Date: 2019-01-04
Where I Have Never Been explores the tropes of return, tracing both literal return visits by Asian emigrants and symbolic "returns": first visits by diasporic offspring. Chu argues that these Asian American narratives seek to remedy widely held anxieties about cultural loss and the erasure of personal and family histories from public memory.
So There It Is by Brigitte Wallinger-Schorn
ISBN: 9789401207010
Publication Date: 2011-12-01
In interpreting contemporary Asian American poetry, it is important to understand the cultural hybridity of Asian America identity, located at the interstices of the fixed identifications 'American', 'Asian American', and 'Asian'. This rootedness in more than one culture exposes the inapplicability of binary concepts (foreigner/national, etc.). Hybridity, opposing essentialism and 'the original', favors multivocality and ambivalence.

Cultural/Historical Context

The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu
Call Number: E184 .C5 L62 1998
Scrutinized! by Monica Chiu
Strangers from a Different Shore by Ronald T. Takaki
Call Number: E 184 .O6 T35 1998
Compositional Subjects by Laura Hyun Yi Kang
Call Number: E184 . O6 K36 2002
Imagine Otherwise by Kandice Chuh
Call Number: E184.O6 C497 2003
Asian American Studies by Esther Mikyung Ghymn
Call Number: E184.O6 A8418 2000

Guides/Companions

Asian American Playwrights by Miles Xian Liu
Call Number: Reference Level 3 PS338 .A74 A9 2002
A series of biographical entries about individual playwrights which investigate the major themes, works, critical reception, and a list of studies about each author.
Asian American Novelists by Emmanuel S. Nelson (Editor)
Call Number: Reference Level 3 - PS153.A84 A825 2000
A series of biographical entries about individual novelists which investigate the major themes, works, critical reception, and a list of studies about each author.
The Columbia Guide to Asian American Literature since 1945 by Guiyou Huang (Compiled by)
A historical overview of the major genres in Asian American literature since 1945. Entries, in the A-Z section, are further broken down by literature type; within each section one can find detailed descriptions of authors and their works.
Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature by Seiwoong Oh
Call Number: Reference Level 3 - PS153 .A84 O37 2007
This is very introductory, but provides information about major authors and their works. Includes a bibliography of Asian-American literature and a secondary bibliography.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature by Guiyou Huang
Includes biographical info, lists of works, critical reception, and further reading on Asian American authors. Also indexes Asian American periodicals, awards, alliances, associations, literary themes, more. See the list of contents to discover which authors are indexed. Search e-index to scour all contents.