Reading With My Grandmother is an analysis of a range of Chinese Canadian literature that deepens the scholarly engagement by using elements of the author's family's story-her grandmother's letters and photographs.
This engagement allows the author to simultaneously illustrate and participate in the varied ways Chinese Canadian literature has been imagined and produced in Canada in the last thirty-five years, examining texts such as Fred Wah's biotext Diamond Grill (1996), Judy Fong Bates' memoir The Year of Finding Memory (2010), and Paul Yee's novel A Superior Man (2015). In keeping with recent calls within Asian Canadian studies for innovative creative-critical methods, the author establishes a scholarly style that embraces subjectivity and demonstrates a dynamic method of revealing linkages and discontinuities between past and present Chinese Canadian writing.
Drawing on literary works and inherited stories, the author considers how family narratives give voice to otherwise muted and traumatized experiences, and how they require readers to question dominant versions of Canada's past to make room for more perspectives. The author also examines the ways such stories can be restricted by readerly expectations for narrative completeness. In navigating these concerns, she explores concerns of connection, community, and identity that have national, gendered, and racialized implications. Lindsay Diehl is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Manitoba, specializing in contemporary Canadian literature and Asian Canadian studies. Her research, which focuses on Chinese Canadian writing, has been featured in such journals as Canadian Literature, Canada & Beyond, and English Studies in Canada. She lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Treaty One territory.
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Scholarly monograph on Chinese Canadian literature primarily aimed at researchers and students
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Offers original contributions to CanLit, Asian Canadian Lit
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Engages with topics of anti-racism, decolonization, feministm, translnationalism
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Addresses social scientists interested in lived experiences and expressive cultures as well as humanities scholars in literature, critical rase, refugee studies, women's and gender studies
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Engagement with her grandmother's letters and the narrative writing make it of interest to a broader, non-scholarly audience with interest in the topic
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Questions the universal applicability of Western feminist ideals, highlighting how they can neglect the distinct experiences and cultures of non-Western women.
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Highlights the critical need for Chinese Canadian-Indigenous ally-ship, as both communities have historically faced systemic racism and colonial injustices, yet colonial narratives often divide them.
Highlights the critical need for Chinese Canadian-Indigenous ally-ship, as both communities have historically faced systemic racism and colonial injustices, yet colonial narratives often divide them. Offers original contributions to CanLit, Asian Canadian Lit Questions the universal applicability of Western feminist ideals, highlighting how they can neglect the distinct experiences and cultures of non-Western women. Engagement with her grandmother's letters and the narrative writing make it of interest to a broader, non-scholarly audience with interest in the topic
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Engages with topics of anti-racism, decolonization, feministm, translnationalism Addresses social scientists interested in lived experiences and expressive cultures as well as humanities scholars in literature, critical rase, refugee studies, women's and gender studies A creative-critical exploration of family history and Chinese Canadian literature. In her introduction to this wonderful book, Lindsay Diehl recounts sitting at her grandmother's kitchen table, 'listening to her stories.' Extending this act of listening,
