Asia and Latin America: Transpacific Imaginaries

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel examines a wide range of transpacific imaginaries as manifested in contemporary Argentine, Brazilian, and Japanese literary and cultural production: from the possibilities of an "argenchina" identity or a revolutionary Taoist poetry in contemporary Argentine literature to the postmodern re-imaginings of Japanese Brazilianness in Japanese and Brazilian cultural products, as well as the conjuring of China as a space of queer futurity and the persistent condition of Japanese Brazilians as “migrant subjects” in recent Brazilian literature. While examining these diverse facets of transpacific imaginaries, the papers in this panel engage with broader theoretical issues including Orientalism, queerness, revolution, language and identity, and Cornejo Polar’s concept of “radical heterogeneity”. The diverse topics and issues covered by this panel reflect the growing scholarly interest in understanding the cultural connections between Asia and Latin America as well as the often overlooked place of Asian-descendants in "nuestra América".

Sub Track

• Latin America and the Pacific Rim

Session Organizer

• Chisu Teresa Ko, Ursinus College

Chair

• Allison E White, Tulane University

Individual Presentations

• La escritura como modo de desviación de la identidad: “Argenchina” y su nueva gramática en Tacos Altos de Federico Jeanmaire - Da Woon Jung

• La revolución de la quietud: la pasividad taoísta en la obra de Juan L. Ortiz - Andrea Juliana Enciso, Universidad del Norte

• Postmodern Japanese Brazilian Representations: Bernardo Carvalho’s "O sol se põe em São Paulo" and Shiozaki Shōhei’s "Akaneiro no yakusoku: Sanba do kingyo" - Zelideth M Rivas, Marshall University

• Cornejo Polar e o sujeito Nikkei brasileiro - Clara Fachini Zanirato, The Ohio State University

• Queer (Mis)communications: Orientalism as Latin American dialogue - Allison E White, Tulane University