Bodega Dreams
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE POSSIBILITY OF HOPE: MEMORY AND AFFECT IN CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN AND U.S. LATINX LITERATURE Elise Marie Auvil, Doctor of Philosophy, 2020 Dissertation directed by: Associate Professor, Randy Ontiveros, Department of English Since the 1980s, contemporary U.S. minority writers have returned to the 1960s in their texts. Through memory, aesthetic form, and setting, writers like Maxine Hong Kingston and Cherríe Moraga continue to evoke the era of the 1960s, synonymous with its social and political movements. In short, the literature of our neoliberal present is colored by the spirit of the 1960s. In this moment, why are so many contemporary authors returning to the 1960s in their fiction? How does this return to the past either foreclose or enable possibility in the present? In "The Possibility of Hope: Memory and Affect in Contemporary Asian American and U.S. Latinx Literature," I argue that these writers attempt to garner past moments of possibility to create a strong affective hope in the present. In examining the texts of Asian American and U.S. Latinx writers specifically, I also uncover how minority groups that have been rendered "alien" in the U.S. social and cultural imaginary seek to re- inscribe themselves in the historical moment of the 1960s in order to open up the potential for hope. My dissertation examines several ways in which writers use space to evoke the spirit of the 1960s: through psychological spaces, physical spaces, and embodied spaces. By considering the turn to the 1960s, I uncover how writing about the past enables hope for the future. THE POSSIBILITY OF HOPE: MEMORY AND AFFECT IN CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICAN AND U.S. LATINX LITERATURE by Elise Marie Auvil Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Advisory Committee: Professor Randy Ontiveros, Chair Professor Sharada Balachandran Orihuela Professor Lee Konstantinou Professor Ryan Long Professor Peter Mallios © Copyright by Elise Marie Auvil 2020 ii Acknowledgements I have been privileged to receive remarkable support during my work on this project. There are many to thank. To my advisor, Randy, thank you for your time, energy, and compassion. Your feedback on my writing, and your support of my decisions, has been encouraging throughout this whole process. To the committee members—Sharada, Peter, Lee, and Ryan—thank you for giving your service and guidance in the completion of this project. To my peers, colleagues, and friends, this project would not be complete without your support. A special acknowledgement is needed for those who sat, discussed, and wrote with me throughout the years: Michael Colson, Audrey Farley, Lauren Flanigan, Sarah Bonnie Humud, Kara Morillo, Phylicia Nance, Jayme Russell, Martha Schnare, Nicholas Slaughter, Susie Compton Underland, and Jessica Williams. I made my best progress when working alongside all of you. To my family, thank you for your constant love and encouragement. To my parents, Rick and Lisa, thank you for fostering my intellect, curiosity, and love of reading. Your belief in my success acts as a constant motivator. To Simba, for adding joy and humor to our lives. Finally, to John, for your unwavering love and support. Your presence by my side means everything. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... iii Introduction: Affects of Hope ....................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Aesthetic Trips and Community Building in Maxine Hong Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey ..................................................................................................... 41 Section 1: Introduction ............................................................................................ 41 Section 2: Tripping in San Francisco ...................................................................... 49 Section 3: Theatrical Tripping ................................................................................ 65 Section 4: Expanding Minds and Communities ...................................................... 73 Section 5: Conclusion ............................................................................................. 87 Chapter 2: Spaces of Hope in Susan Choi's American Woman and Ernesto Quiñonez's Bodega Dreams ......................................................................................................... 105 Section 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 105 Section 2: Domestic and Political Spaces in American Woman ........................... 109 Section 3: Cultural and Artistic Spaces in Bodega Dreams ................................. 137 Section 4: Conclusion ........................................................................................... 157 Chapter 3: Embodied Memory in the Works of Cherríe L. Moraga and Monique Truong's Bitter in the Mouth ..................................................................................... 162 Section 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 162 Section 2: Embodied Memories and Temporal Orientation in the Works of Cherríe L. Moraga .............................................................................................................. 169 Section 3: Tastes of the Past in Bitter in the Mouth .............................................. 186 Section 4: Conclusion ........................................................................................... 208 Coda .......................................................................................................................... 210 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 221 1 Introduction: Affects of Hope In 2011, Donald Trump made a splash on the media circuit by vocalizing a conspiracy theory that President Obama was not born in the United States and, thus, ineligible to be president. In April 2011, Time Magazine quoted Trump as saying, "We have a president who may not have been born in this country. The polls are showing 55% of the Republicans agree with me."1 What became known as birtherism was an attempt to mobilize xenophobia in the American population. As Alan Abramowitz sums up, birtherism was "clearly intended to appeal to the large segment of Republican voters who were upset about the presence of a black man in the White House."2 Trump capitalized on the media he was receiving and, ultimately, did not admit that President Obama was born in the U.S. until 2016, a couple months before he was elected president.3 In Obama's 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention, he focused on the powerful meaning of his name: "My parents . shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or 'blessed,' believing that in a tolerant America your name is no 1. Scherer, "Trump's Political Reality Show." 2. Abramowitz, "White Racial Resentment," 123. 3. Reilly, "Donald Trump Finally Admits." 2 barrier to success."4 Despite these hopeful origins, Trump's racist exploitation of Obama's name and his immigrant father led to his political fame. Unlike Trump, whose political rise appealed to divisiveness, Obama's political fame began with this 2004 speech on the "audacity of hope." Obama described this hope not as "blind optimism," but as the hope of "slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a mill worker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too."5 In the 2007 announcement of his presidential candidacy, Obama set the stage for his campaign to be about restoring a sense of unity to the U.S. population, regardless of ethnicity or origin. He implored, "This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change."6 Obama campaigned on a platform of inclusiveness, a platform that invigorated the political left with a sense of hope. Trump continued to undermine the Obama presidency of hope during his presidential campaign by appealing to racial resentment and xenophobia. Trump's attacks against Mexican immigrants highlights these appeals. In his presidential announcement speech, Trump said: 4. Obama, "Keynote Address." 5. Obama, "Keynote Address." 6. Hartnell, "Re-reading America," 17. 3 When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America, and it's coming probably— probably— from the Middle East. But we don't know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don't know what's happening. And it's got to stop and it's got to stop fast. Throughout