Book contents
- The Cambridge History ofAsian American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Early Forms of Expression to the Start of the Twentieth Century
- Part II The Exclusion Era, World War II, and the Immediate Postwar Era
- Part III The Asian American Movement
- Part IV Canons
- Part V Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
- 22 Beyond Solitary Confinement: Rethinking the Sociopolitical Context of Local Literature in Hawai‘i
- 23 Contemporary Asian American Drama
- 24 “More Than You Ever Knew You Knew”: The Rising Prestige of Fiction
- 25 Asian American Poetry and the Politics of Form
- 26 The Forgotten War in Korea
- 27 The American War in Viet Nam and Its Diasporas
- 28 Refugee Aesthetics: Cambodia, Laos, and the Hmong
- Part VI Twenty-First Century: 9/11, Empire, and Other Challenges to Literature
- Bibliography
- Index
25 - Asian American Poetry and the Politics of Form
from Part V - Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2015
By
Book contents
- The Cambridge History ofAsian American Literature
- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I Early Forms of Expression to the Start of the Twentieth Century
- Part II The Exclusion Era, World War II, and the Immediate Postwar Era
- Part III The Asian American Movement
- Part IV Canons
- Part V Post-1965 and the Twenty-First Century
- 22 Beyond Solitary Confinement: Rethinking the Sociopolitical Context of Local Literature in Hawai‘i
- 23 Contemporary Asian American Drama
- 24 “More Than You Ever Knew You Knew”: The Rising Prestige of Fiction
- 25 Asian American Poetry and the Politics of Form
- 26 The Forgotten War in Korea
- 27 The American War in Viet Nam and Its Diasporas
- 28 Refugee Aesthetics: Cambodia, Laos, and the Hmong
- Part VI Twenty-First Century: 9/11, Empire, and Other Challenges to Literature
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The earliest Asian American poems in English date back to the late 1800s. The aesthetic and political heterogeneity of Asian American poetry has been occluded not only in our historical narratives of the development of Asian American literature but also in our perception and characterization of what Asian American poetry is or looks like. Poetry by racialized persons is almost always read as an appendage to the larger fields of English-language poetry and all poetics. The lyric, avant-garde poetry, American poetry, and others are too often presumed to be universal and overarching, and implicitly racially unmarked. Mei-mei Berssenbrugge is an experimental Asian American poet, whose poems can be read as both lyric and experimental at once. Berssenbrugge's career trajectory represents a unique case in contemporary avant-garde poetry. In her poetry, Prageeta Sharma does not shy away from references to South Asian identity or to India, but she resists giving in to what is demanded of her poems' (and her) commodification.
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- The Cambridge History of Asian American Literature , pp. 437 - 453Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015