Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/182284
Title: JAPANESE AMERICAN WRITERS : GARRETT HONGO AND DAVID MURA
Authors: KHOO POH CHENG
Issue Date: 1996
Citation: KHOO POH CHENG (1996). JAPANESE AMERICAN WRITERS : GARRETT HONGO AND DAVID MURA. ScholarBank@NUS Repository.
Abstract: This dissertation explores the works of Sansei writers, third generation Japanese Americans, Garrett Hongo and David Mura in relation to the creation of a new American identity. It demonstrates how their generation's perception of identity has moved away from the older generations' static concept of what an American should be, to a more fluid understanding of what an American can be. Their works reveal that it is their confusion regarding their differences from what has been perceived to be the mainstream American ideal that has resulted in their sense of alienation. From a close study of their poetry and prose, we will see how everyday racism, subtle or otherwise, affects their sense of being American; and how their compulsion to create a new self stems from this need to establish a sense of belonging. Hongo and Mura both look beyond their own rage and insecurities to understand, in re-enactments within their works, the abuse of their right to American citizenship in the older generations' confinement in the internment camps during the Second World War. They are reminded by the older generations' sacrifices that the spirit of survival lies in a constant and continual realignment of the self to the needs of the time. With their writing and their searching, they learn to bridge the gaps between generations, delving past the silences created by their Nisei parents and Issei grandparents (second and first generation Japanese Americans respectively). In the process of reclaiming and learning from their hidden history, Hongo and Mura demonstrate how they ventured in search of their Japanese ancestry, be it in Japan, or as in the case of Hongo, in his birthplace of Volcano, Hawai'i. In the search for their roots Hongo and Mura are effectively seeking a land which they can belong to and call their own. The urgency of the search is intensified by the knowledge that the legacy they reclaim and consolidate in their generation, is rightfully a part of the heritage that they owe their children. Their continual striving for a reinterpretation of history and a re-creation of their sense of identity is paralleled by their own varied experimentation with a variety of genres. Ultimately, their search for new forms for expressing their views is part of an attempt to effectively portray this legacy; to work towards a voice which can not only speak for Japanese Americans as Americans/American nationals, but for themselves as individuals.
URI: https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/182284
Appears in Collections:Master's Theses (Restricted)

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