in the beginning...

Well, I’ve been looking for a focus for this blog. It was handed to me on Sunday evening at around 8:30pm when I realized I had 82 days to complete my Master’s Thesis. (my deadline changed from 8/18 to 6/8)

Here’s where we start:::

What the hell am I going to write about? What the hell can I write 35-40 pages on?

Answer: I like postmodern theory or theories. My favorite book I have read in the past 5 years is The Warrior Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston. I was published in the Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature. I guess that’s where I’m headed…

An excerpt from my proposal:::

Specifically, what I would like to do is discover exactly how these women work to find their voice within these constraints [of two cultures, of genre] and through this framework. I want to use a deconstructionist and feminist lens to dissect what it means to be feminine in each culture and how each identity is formed and then how that identity works within the identity of being a “hyphenated American” that is, Asian-American or Mexican-American.

From the preliminary research that I have done most of the feminine identity in these works is based within images of the female body and how it is portrayed, the mothers’ treatment of themselves and their daughters, as well as the father figures of these women when they were girls.

The research also discusses the immigrant view of the “American dream” and how the pursuit of this dream helps to inform the idea of these Künstlerroman. These women aren’t just dreaming of growing up and having jobs and owning homes. They feel empowered by their circumstances to rise above the ordinary and become informants for other women and girls of their culture of how they negotiated the two worlds they found themselves between. As I mentioned, these novels are semi-autobiographical so it is no surprise that the protagonists of these novels are all on their way to becoming authors.

I've been steadily researching, reading and writing for the past 4 days... this is likely going to result in fascinating discoveries...not only about this postmodern first generation American coming of age but of myself and where my passions are going to lead me...

watch out, friends, this is going to be a wild ride!!