The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity in Asian American Poetry

327 Pages·2006·1.2 MB·English

by  Xiaojing Zhou

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literary studies / poetics / asian american studies

i Xiaojing Zhou the ethics and poetics of
xiaojing zhou, associate professor a The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity in
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of English and director of ethnic studies in alterity in Asian American Poetry Asian American Poetry
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at University of the Pacific, is the author of Z by xiaojing zhou

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Elizabeth Bishop: Rebel “in Shades and Shadows” o
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Poetry by Asian American writers has had a

and coeditor of Form and Transformation in
significant impact on the landscape of contempo-
t

Asian American Literature. h rary American poetry, and a book-length critical

e
e treatment of Asian American poetry is long over-
t due. In this groundbreaking book, Xiaojing Zhou
Jacket art by Li Lin Lee, Corban Ephphatha, 1991–1992, In this groundbreaking book, “The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity is an hics dtreamnsofnosrtmra tthese hcoownv menatnioyn Aals “iaIn” oAf mlyerircic paone ptroye—ts
the Art Institute of Chicago. Reproduced by permission Xiaojing Zhou demonstrates how exploration of Asian American poetry and a based on the traditional Western concept of the
of the artist. many Asian American poets poetics that sees both as vehicles for new con- an self and the Cartesian “I”—to enact a more ethical
ceptualizations of Asian American otherness ld
transform the conventional “I” that exceed the dichotomies of the past and te p relationship between the “I” and its others.
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io
of lyric poetry—based on the refuse to settle comfortably in alterity, but tye Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas’s idea of the ethics
traditional Western concept of rather present us with both epistemological itic of alterity—which argues that an ethical relation
and ethical challenges at once.” ns
the self and the Cartesian “I”—to —David Palumbo Liu, author of Asian/ A o to the other is one that acknowledges the irreduc-
ibility of otherness—Zhou offers a reconceptual-
f
enact a more ethical relationship American: Historical Crossings of a Racial ization of both self and other. Taking difference as
s
Frontier
between the “I” and its others. ia a source of creativity and turning it into a form of
n resistance and a critical intervention, Asian Ameri-
“As the first full-length study of Asian
can poets engage with broader issues than the
American poetry to be published, The Ethics A
merely poetic. They confront social injustice
Of Related Interest
and Poetics of Alterity in Asian American Poetry
tell this silence: pays careful attention to a group of writers m against the other and call critical attention to a
concept of otherness which differs fundamentally
Asian American Women Writers that have been long neglected in both Asian e
r from that underlying racism, sexism, and colonial-
and the Politics of Speech American studies and literary studies. With her i
c ism. By locating the ethical and political questions
By Patti Duncan attention to questions of language and form, a of otherness in language, discourse, aesthetics, and
to logics of racial minoritization in the United n
isbn 0-87745-856-1 cloth everyday encounters, Asian American poets help

States, and to the otherness of poetry itself, P
advance critical studies in race, gender, and popular
Xiaojing Zhou forces us to broaden and rethink
o culture as well as in poetry.
University of Iowa Press not only our conceptions of Asian American e
t
literature and American poetry but the very
r The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity is not limited,
Iowa City, Iowa 52242 categories of the ‘literary’ and ‘poetic’ them- y
however, to literary studies: it is an invaluable
selves.”—Dorothy Wang, Northwestern
response to the questions raised by increasingly
University
globalized encounters across many kinds of
boundaries.
iowa
the ethics & poetics of alterity in
sian merican oetr
A A P y

The Ethics &Poetics
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university of iowa press iowa city
University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242
Copyright © 2006 by the University of Iowa Press
http://www.uiowa.edu/uiowapress
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Design by Richard Hendel
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or
by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders
of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to
make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been pos-
sible to reach.
A different version of chapter 1 appeared in Textual Ethos Studies
(New York and Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005), edited by Anna
Fahraeus and AnnKatrin Jonsson. A different version of chapter 6
appeared in College Literature31.1 (Winter 2004).
Printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zhou, Xiaojing, 1952– .
The ethics and poetics of alterity in Asian American poetry / by
Xiaojing Zhou.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn
0-87745-982-7 (cloth)
1. American poetry—Asian American authors—History and
criticism. 2. Difference (Psychology) in literature. 3. Asian
Americans—Intellectual life. 4. Asian Americans in literature.
5. Ethics in literature. I. Title.
ps153.a84z98
2006 2005053852
(cid:2)
811.009353—dc22
c
06 07 08 09 10 5 4 3 2 1
To Michael and Nathan

ontents
C
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 Li-Young Lee
Your Otherness Is Perfect as My Death 25
2 Marilyn Chin
She Walks into Exile Vowing No Return 66
3 David Mura
Where Am I, the Missing Third? 102
4 Kimiko Hahn
The Passion of Leaving Home 133
5 Timothy Liu
Each of Us Harboring What the Other Lacked 167
6 John Yau
The I of Changes, the Destroying I, the Its of the I 196
7 Myung Mi Kim
Speak and It Is Sound in Time 229
Conclusion 275
Notes 281
Bibliography 289
Index 303

Acknowledgments
The author gratefully acknowledges permissions granted by
the following authors and publishers.
Marilyn Chin, Dwarf Bamboo(Greenfield, NY: Greenfield Review
Press, 1987), copyright © by Marilyn Chin, used by permission of
Marilyn Chin. The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty (Minneapolis:
Milkweed Editions, 1994), copyright © by Marilyn Chin, used by per-
mission of Milkweed Editions. “Blue on Yellow” from Rhapsody in
Plain Yellow(New York: Norton, 2002), copyright © 2002 by Marilyn
Chin, used by permission of Marilyn Chin and W. W. Norton and
Company, Inc.
Kimiko Hahn, Air Pocket (Brooklyn: Hanging Loose Press, 1989),
copyright 1989 by Kimiko Hahn, used by permission of Kimiko
Hahn. Earshot (Brooklyn: Hanging Loose Press, 1992), copyright ©
by Kimiko Hahn, used by permission of Kimiko Hahn. The Un-
bearable Heart (New York: Kaya Production, 1995), copyright © by
Kimiko Hahn, used by permission of Kimiko Hahn. Mosquito and
Ant: Poems(New York: Norton, 1999), copyright © by Kimiko Hahn,
used by permission of Kimiko Hahn and W. W. Norton and Com-
pany, Inc.
Myung Mi Kim, Under Flag (Berkeley: Kelsey Street Press, 1991),
copyright © by Myung Mi Kim, used by permission of Myung Mi
Kim and Kelsey Street Press. The Bounty (Minneapolis: Chax Press,
1996), copyright © by Myung Mi Kim, used by permission of Myung
Mi Kim and Chax Press. Dura (Los Angeles: Sun and Moon Press,
1998), copyright © by Myung Mi Kim, used by permission of Myung
Mi Kim. Commons (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002),
copyright by Myung Mi Kim, used by permission of Myung Mi Kim
and the University of California Press.
Li-Young Lee, Rose (Brockport, NY: BOA Editions, 1986), copy-
right © by Li-Young Lee, used by permission of Li-Young Lee and
BOA Editions.The City in Which I Love You(Brockport, NY: BOA Edi-