Gender Justice and Contemporary Asian Literatures
A Casebook
- Author: Karen Laura Thornber
- Pages: 250
- Published: 2024
- ISBN: 9781603296618 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603296601 (Hardcover)
“With its solid research work conducted with a truly interdisciplinary and transcultural approach, this volume is a rare gem. Students, teachers, and scholars in gender studies, justice studies, literary studies, diaspora studies, and Asian studies will certainly find this volume an indispensable resource.”
This casebook investigates how diverse writers from across East, South, and Southeast Asia and their diasporas have engaged with the struggle for gender justice. Each chapter analyzes works of literature originally written in Bengali, Chinese, English, Indonesian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Marathi, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Aimed at both specialists and nonspecialists, Gender Justice and Contemporary Asian Literatures addresses such subjects as gender imparity in male-dominated professions; the lives of migrant sex workers and caregivers; the fight against reproductive, family, non-partner, and intimate partner violence; and norms of shame and silence surrounding violence against women. Informed by the author’s deep knowledge of literature, history, culture, law, and social conditions, this book will be a resource for instructors and students in gender studies, women’s studies, ethnic studies, Asian studies, Asian American studies, Asian diaspora studies, comparative literature, and world literature.
Karen Laura Thornber is Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and professor of East Asian languages and civilizations at Harvard University. A cultural historian and scholar of literature and media, she has published numerous articles and books, including Empire of Texts in Motion: Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese Transculturations of Japanese Literature (2009), Ecoambiguity: Environmental Crises and East Asian Literatures (2012), and Global Healing: Literature, Advocacy, Care (2020).
Acknowledgments and Dedication (ix)
Note on Transliteration, Personal Names, and Titles of Works in This Volume (xi)
Introduction: Literature, Asia, Diasporas, and Pandemics of Gender Inequity and Gender-Based Violence (1)
1. Confronting Tyrannies of Social Norms within and beyond Families (19)
Overwhelmed by Exploitative Social Norms: Cho Namjoo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (2016)
Evading Prescriptive Social Norms: Murata Sayaka’s Convenience Store Woman (2016)
Decades of Struggling against Social Norms: Dạ Ngân’s An Insignificant Family (2005)
2. Struggling for Equity in Male-Dominated Professions (57)
Moderating Medicine: Watanabe Jun’ichi’s Beyond the Blossoming Fields (1970)
Making It in Media: Saba Imtiaz’s Karachi, You’re Killing Me! (2014)
Breaking Banking: Claire Tham’s “The Gunpowder Trail” (1999)
3. Humanizing Migrant Reproductive Workers (81)
Humanizing Sex Workers: Mey Son Sotheary’s “My Sister” (1995)
Humanizing Care Workers: Zhou Daxin’s Longevity Park (2018)
Humanizing Indonesian Migrant Domestic Workers: Ratna Khaerudina’s “Susi” (2010) and Ally Dalijo’s “My Employer” (2009)
Humanizing Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers: Wena Poon’s “Development” (2009)
4. Capitulating to and Fighting against Reproductive Violence (115)
Restricting Reproduction: Kawakami Mieko’s Breasts and Eggs (2019)
Banning Reproduction: Wang Nanfu and Zhang Jialing’s One Child Nation (2019) and Ma Jian’s The Dark Road (2012)
Reconceiving Surrogacy: Kishwar Desai’s Origins of Love (2012)
5. Prosecuting Cultures of Shame, Silence, Rape, and Murder (141)
Rape Culture, Silence, and Me Too on Trial: Itō Shiori’s Black Box (2017)
Multiple-Perpetrator Rape on Trial: Marianne Villanueva’s “The Mayor of the Roses” (1999)
Wartime Sexual Violence and Shame on Trial: Kim Soom’s One Left (2016)
Prosecuting Honor-Based Violence: Sarbjit Kaur Athwal’s Shamed (2013)
6. Perpetuating and Interrupting Cycles of Family Violence (175)
Escalating Violence: Tisa Muhaddes’s “Over and Over Again” (2009)
Manipulating Violence: Kishwar Desai’s Witness the Night (2010)
Imploding Violence: Patigül’s Bloodline (2015)
Defying Violence: Selina Hossain’s “Motijan’s Daughters” (1995)
7. Intersecting Responsibilities for Intimate Partner Violence (201)
Failures of Family, Friends, Health Professionals, Courts, and Bystanders: Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You; or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife (2017)
Bursting Fantasies: Pak Wansŏ’s “An Episode at Dusk, 2” (1987)
Dismissing Abuse: Shabnam Nadiya’s “Teacher Shortage” (2008)
Without Recourse: Li Ang’s The Butcher’s Wife (1983)
Justice for Whom? Duanwad Pimwana’s “Men’s Rights” (2006)
Index (233)