A Gesture Life : Reviewing the Model Minority Complex in a Global Context

• 영문명: A Gesture Life : Reviewing the Model Minority Complex in a Global Context
• 발행기관: 한국아메리카학회
• 저자명: Joan Chiung huei Chang
• 간행물 정보: 『미국학논집』제37집 1호, 131~152쪽, 전체 22쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 기타인문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2005.05.30

영문 초록

  The stereotypical image of Asian Americans has undergone several stages of evolution. From derogatory epithets at the end of the nineteenth century to cajoling appellations in the early twentieth century, caricatures of the Asians are modified through time not because of interior changes among the Asians but because of exterior mutations of the American economy and politics. Overall, the model minority stereotype of the Asians remains a myth after undergoing all the evolution. This image tends not only to conglomerate diverse Asian groups by ignoring their different experiences and achievements, but also to segregate or dis-integrate Asians from non-Asians by emphasizing their opposition and disparity. The reviewing of the model minority image should thus be done with a historical attention to the pre-war and post-war eras, and with a geographical concern for the national and international situations. This essay examines the model minority with a focus on the production of this image, and how thereafter this image configures a complex among the Asians-"the model minority complex"-defined in this essay as a mental state aroused out of repressed anxiety over racial discrimination and cultural alienation, and featuring voluntary self-degradation and unnatural assimilation. This essay takes Chang-rae Lee"s A Gesture Life as a literary representation for studying the formation of the model minority complex by Asians in a global context.

목차

Ⅰ. Production of the Model Minority Image
Ⅱ. Formation of the Model Minority Complex in A Gesture Life
Ⅲ. Model Minority Complex in a Global Context
Works Cited
Abstract

키워드

model minority Asian Americans Korean American literature Chang-rae Lee A Gesture Life