Lives Beyond Borders : US Immigrant Women's Life Writing, Nationality, and Social Justice

A cross-cultural, comparative study of contemporary life writing by women who migrated to the United States from Mexico, Ghana, South Korea, and Iran, __Lives beyond Borders__ broadens and deepens critical work on immigrant life writing. Ina C. Seethaler investigates how these autobiographical texts--through genre mixing, motifs of doubling, and other techniques--challenge stereotypes, social hierarchies, and the supposed fixity of identity and lend literary support to grassroots social justice efforts. Seethaler's approach to literary analysis is both interdisciplinary and accessible. While __Lives beyond Borders__ draws on feminist theory, critical race theory, and disability and migration studies, it also uses stories to engage and interest readers in issues related to migration and social change. In so doing, the book reevaluates the purpose, form, and audience of immigrant life writing. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Reading Memoirs by Immigrant Women in the United States Gender and Migration in the United States and Worldwide Research Questions and Methodology Women’s Life Writing and the Relational Self Theories on Immigrant Life Writing Life Writing and Nationality Life Writing and Social Justice A New Reading of Immigrant Women’s Life Writing The Scope of This Book Chapter 1 A Genre for Justice: Life Writing and Undocumented Migration Undocumented Migration and Gender Journey of Hope as Trickster Text Subversive Trickster Rhetoric and Its Audience Conclusions Chapter 2 Living Like an Alien: Blackness, Migration, and Depression Migration to the United States from West Africa Mental Illness, Gender, Race, and Nationality Memoir as a Tool of Healing Conclusions Chapter 3 Transnational Adoptee Life Writing: Oppressed Voices and Genre Choices Transnational Adoption and Oppression Trenka’s Stylistic Choices as Resistance Life Writing as a Tool for Hearing Silenced Voices Conclusions Chapter 4 (Re)Negotiating the Self: Collective Memoir and Border Crossings Iranian Immigrant Women’s Memoir Boom Storytelling as Protection against Misogyny Persian Girls as Auto/Biography Conclusions Chapter 5 Life Narratives and the Syrian Refugee Crisis Displacement through the Eyes of a Child Tweets from Aleppo as Life-Writing Activism Epilogue The Power and Future of Immigrant Women’s Life Writing Notes Works Cited Index Examines how contemporary US migrant women's life writing adapts autobiographical genres to call for social change benefiting minoritized communities. A cross-cultural, comparative study of contemporary life writing by women who migrated to the United States from Mexico, Ghana, South Korea, and Iran, Lives beyond Borders broadens and deepens critical work on immigrant life writing. Ina C. Seethaler investigates how these autobiographical textsthrough genre mixing, motifs of doubling, and other techniqueschallenge stereotypes, social hierarchies, and the supposed fixity of identity and lend literary support to grassroots social justice efforts. Seethaler's approach to literary analysis is both interdisciplinary and accessible. While Lives beyond Borders draws on feminist theory, critical race theory, and disability and migration studies, it also uses stories to engage and interest readers in issues related to migration and social change. In so doing, the book reevaluates the purpose, form, and audience of immigrant life writing. "Examines how contemporary US migrant women's life writing adapts autobiographical genres to call for social change benefiting minoritized communities"-- Provided by publisher