The course explores Asian American literature by focusing on the genre and form of comics and graphic novels. Through these illustrative and textual works we explore the Asian American experience of immigration and racial difference as well as the construction of Asian American identity and representation through such works as Adrian Tomine's†Shortcomings†and Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do. The course also considers the transnational and global literature of Asian American graphic novels from other sites of Asian migration and diaspora including Vietnamese-Australian Matt Huynh's†The Boat†and Korean-Belgian adoptee Jung's†Couleur de peau miel. As such this course seeks to examine literary works and cultural productions in the form of comics and graphic novels that engage with and articulate the Asian American experience as well as the sense of being Asian in the world.
