Publication date:

16 January 2009

Length of book:

196 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

240x164mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739129036

This book is conceived as a reader for use in American studies, Asian American studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender studies, performance studies, and queer studies. It also contains new scholarship on Asian/American sexualities that would be useful for faculty and students. In particular, this volume highlights materials that receive little academic attention such as works on Southeast Asian migrants, mixed race cultural production, and Asian/American pornography. As an interdisciplinary anthology, this collection weaves together various forms of 'knowledge'_autobiographical accounts, humanistic research, community-based work, and artistic expression. Responsive to the imbrication of knowledge and power, the authors aspire to present a diverse sample of discourses that construct Asian/American bodies. They maintain that the body serves as the primary interface between the individual and the social, yet, as Elizabeth Grosz noted over a decade ago, feminist theory, and gender and sexuality studies more generally, 'has tended, with some notable exceptions, to remain uninterested in or unconvinced about the relevance of refocusing on bodies in accounts of subjectivity.' This volume attempts to address this concern.
Embodying Asian/American Sexualities forges a new intellectual frontier for critical race and queer studies. This extraordinary collection boasts an archive unlike any other. A provocative tour of transgender, religion, and refugees, as well as the secret lives of Margaret Cho, Brandon Lee, Indian rubber dildos, and Asian men as 'undesirable geniuses', this anthology illuminates ever-shifting conceptions of gender and sexuality through which Asian/American bodies are read.