Displacing Kinship: The Intimacies of Intergenerational Trauma in Vietnamese American Cultural Production (Asian American History & Cultu) - Softcover

Nguyen, Linh Thuy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1439924708 ISBN 13: 9781439924709

Publisher: Temple University Press, 2024

Synopsis

Nearly fifty years after the end of the war in Vietnam, American children of Vietnamese refugees continue to process the meanings of the war and its consequences through creative work. Displacing Kinship examines how Vietnamese American cultural productions register lived experiences of racism in their depictions of family life and marginalization.

Second-generation texts illustrate how the children of refugees from Vietnam are haunted by trauma and a violent, ever-present, but mostly unarticulated past. Linh Thủy Nguyễn's analysis reveals that present experiences of economic insecurity and racism also shape these narratives of familial loss.

Developing a theory of intergenerational trauma, Nguyễn rethinks how U.S. imperialism, the discourse of communism, and assimilation impacted families across generations. Through ethnic studies and feminist and queer-of-color critique, Displacing Kinship offers a critical approach for reading family tensions and interpersonal conflict as affective investments informed by the material, structural conditions of white supremacy and racial capitalism.

About this title

About the Author

Linh Thủy Nguyễn is Assistant Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and Faculty Associate in the Center for Southeast Asia and Its Diasporas and the Harry Bridges Labor Center at the University of Washington.

Edition details

• Publisher: Temple University Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1439924708
• ISBN 13: 9781439924709
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216