Critiquing Postmodernism in Contemporary Discourses of Race (American Literature Readings in the Twenty-first Century)

Critiquing Postmodernism in Contemporary Discourses of Race challenges the critical emphasis on otherness in treatments of race in literary and cultural studies. Sue J. Kim deftly argues that this treatment not only perpetuates narrow identity politics, but obscures the political and economic structures that shape issues of race in literary studies. Kim’s revelatory book shows how reading authors through their identity ends up neglecting both complex historical contexts and aesthetic forms. This comparative study calls for a reconsideration of the bases for critical engagement and a reading ethics that melds the best of historicist and formalist approaches to literature. "Critiquing Postmodernism in Contemporary Discourses of Race challenges the critical emphasis on otherness in treatments of race in literary and cultural studies. Sue J. Kim argues that this treatment not only perpetuates narrow identity politics, but obscures the political and economic structures that shape issues of race in literary studies. Kim's revelatory book shows how reading authors through their identity ends up neglecting both complex historical contexts and aesthetic forms. This comprehensive study calls for a reconsideration of the bases for critical engagement and a reading ethics that melds the best of historical and formalist approaches to literature."--Jacket Critiquing Postmodernism in Contemporary Discourses of Race challenges the critical emphasis on otherness in treatments of race in literary and cultural studies. Sue J. Kim deftly argues that this treatment not only perpetuates narrow identity politics, but obscures the political and economic structures that shape issues of race in literary studies. Kim s revelatory book shows how reading authors through their identity ends up neglecting both complex historical contexts and aesthetic forms. This comparative study calls for a reconsideration of the bases for critical engagement and a reading ethics that melds the best of historicist and formalist approaches to literature. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction......Page 14 One: The Ideological Fantasy of Otherness Postmodernism......Page 22 Two: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and the Politics of Form......Page 60 Three: Not Three Worlds But One: Thomas Pynchon and the Invisibility of Race......Page 96 Four: Analyzing the Real: Bessie Head’s Literary Psychosis......Page 130 Concluding Notes......Page 164 Notes......Page 178 Works Cited......Page 190 C......Page 204 G......Page 205 L......Page 206 P......Page 207 S......Page 208 Z......Page 209 This book examines and critiques the influence of postmodernism on current conceptions of race, within and beyond literary and cultural studies