Greater Than Half: A Psychoanalytical Approach to Multiracial Characters in Asian American Literature

Although Asian American literature frequently features multiracial characters, these narratives rarely represent the experiences of multiracial people. Because the canon of Asian American literature thus far largely focuses on the subjectivities of monoracial Asian American experiences, portrayals of mixed-race Asian Americans largely focus on the perception of mixed-race bodies rather than the intimate nuances of being mixed-race. In depicting mixed-race Asian American bodies as culturally unintelligible, these stories deploy those characters as metaphors for broader multicultural experiences, but fail to explore the lived experiences of mixed-race identity. This project will explore the ways in which multiracial Asian American characters are used to portray projected fears and how, in truth, multiracial experiences are not reducible to the parts of their whole racial identity. This project traces the psychoanalytical origins of the most extreme responses to mixed-race bodies: abjection and fetishization. Key words: miscegenation, mixed-race, multiracial, multicultural, Eurasian, abjection, fetishization

Author

• Smith, Julia Asami

Language

• en

Keyword

• abjection
• mixed-race
• miscegenation
• fetishization
• Eurasian
• multiracial

Date created

• 2021

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• English

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Chu, Patricia P

Committee Member(s)

• Joubin, Alexa A

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/s1784m46q