Relative Histories: Mediating History in Asian American Family Memoirs
Rocío G. Davis
Abstract
This book focuses on the Asian American memoir that specifically recounts the story of at least three generations of the same family. This form of auto/biography concentrates as much on other members of one's family as on oneself, generally collapses the boundaries conventionally established between biography and autobiography, and in many cases crosses the frontier into history, promoting collective memory. This book centers on how Asian American family memoirs expand the limits and function of life writing by reclaiming history and promoting community cohesion. It argues that identity is sha ... More
This book focuses on the Asian American memoir that specifically recounts the story of at least three generations of the same family. This form of auto/biography concentrates as much on other members of one's family as on oneself, generally collapses the boundaries conventionally established between biography and autobiography, and in many cases crosses the frontier into history, promoting collective memory. This book centers on how Asian American family memoirs expand the limits and function of life writing by reclaiming history and promoting community cohesion. It argues that identity is shaped by not only the stories we have been told, but also the stories we tell, making these narratives important examples of the ways we remember our family's past and tell our community's story. In the context of auto/biographical writing or filmmaking that explores specific ethnic experiences of diaspora, assimilation, and integration, this work considers two important aspects: These texts re-imagine the past by creating a work that exists both in history and as a historical document, making the creative process a form of re-enactment of the past itself. Each chapter centers on a thematic concern germane to the Asian American experience. The final chapter analyzes the discursive possibilities of the filmed family memoir. The book concludes the work with a metaliterary engagement with the history of the author's own Asian diasporic family as she demonstrates the profound interconnection between forms of life writing.
Keywords:
biography,
Asian American memoir,
autobiography,
family memoirs,
collective memory,
assimilation,
integration,
Asian diaspora,
life writing
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780824834586 |
Published to Hawaii Scholarship Online: November 2016 |
DOI:10.21313/hawaii/9780824834586.001.0001 |