[Review of] Phillipa Kafka. (Un)Doing the Missionary Position: Gender Asymmetry in Contemporary Asian American Women's Writing

Authors

David Goldstein-Shirley

Orginal Publication Date

1997

Journal Title

Ethnic Studies Review

Volume

20

Issue

esr/vol20/iss1

First Page

106

Last Page

107

Comments

The Ethnic Experience in the United States

Abstract

Phillipa Kafka's clever book title turns on her deconstruction of what she sees as a simultaneous patriarchal and racist orientation of some contemporary literary criticism, akin to the unquestioned, naturalized supremacy presumed by agents of political imperialism such as missionaries. By focusing on what she sees as feminist and postfeminist writing by contemporary Asian American women authors -- specifically, their attention to gender asymmetry -- she demonstrates that we can read these works as a collective strike against the sexism of much (male) postcolonial, Marxist, and deconstructionist criticism and the racism of much (white) feminist criticism. Her readings of Amy Tan, Fae Myenne Ng, Gish Jen, R. A. Sasaki, and Cynthia Kadohata represent a provocative, new framework for understanding recent literature by Asian American women.

Rights

​Copyright ©ESR, The National Association for Ethnic Studies, 1997