Seung-Won Kim

Graduation Semester and Year

2011

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in English

Department

English

First Advisor

Timothy R. Morris

Abstract

My dissertation focuses on the intersection between the maturation of young Korean American protagonists in fiction and the writers' own growing-up of ethnic identity as Korean descendants. I analyze nine Korean American novels written by Sook Nyul Choi, An Na, and Linda Sue Park. I approach my selected texts in two different ways. First, I explore the different exigencies of their writing projects by investigating their biographical backgrounds. Second, I examine how these authors differently represent Korean American matters such as history, community, and culture in order to create stories of Korean or Korean American protagonists' coming-of-age through their writing projects by comparing their literary oeuvres. In Chapter 1, I provide a historical overview of Asian American matters in Asian American novels in order to define the term Asian American matters, contextualize the study, and present the theoretical framework. In Chapter 2, I discuss how Sook Nyul Choi, as a first generation Korean American writer represents various historical matters in order to demonstrate a story of Korean American protagonist's coming-of-age in her autobiographical novels based on her pre-American childhood experiences and writing Korean history: Year of Impossible Goodbyes, Echoes of the White Giraffe, and Gathering of Pearls. In Chapter 3, I argue how 1.5 generation Korean American writer An Na represents Korean American community in order to demonstrate a coming-of-age story of Korean American young adult protagonist in her contemporary young adult novels based on her own young adulthood in Koreatown in Southern California: A Step from Heaven, Wait for Me, and The Fold. In Chapter 4, I propose how a second generation Korean American writer Linda Sue Park demonstrates Korean American culture in her historical novels in order to illustrate a story of Korean protagonist's coming-of-age set in different Korean historical periods and places based on her own research and imagination: The Kite Fighters, A Single Shard, and When My Name was Keoko. This study gives scholars a new opportunity to explore Korean American novels in both fields of Asian American studies and children's literature by dually examining nine Korean American childhood accounts. As an Asian Amercanist, I cautiously regard this study as an important academic accomplishment because it would be a burgeoning area of research regarding Korean American novels, accomplished by examining the complicated relationship between the authors' consciousness and the texts created out of the authors' intentions.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | English Language and Literature

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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