Writing on the Run: Hmong American Literary Formations and the Deterritorialized Subject

Author(s):

Vang, M.

Format:

Journal article

Citation:

Melus, Volume 41, Issue 3 (2016). pp. 89-111.

Language:

English

Abstract:

This essay examines two Hmong American literary anthologies, Bamboo Among the Oaks (2002) and How Do I Begin (2011), as sites of critical inquiry into questions about writing, refugee literature, home, and diasporic and deterritorialized subject formation. Rather than simply adding to multi-ethnic literature, the anthologies illuminate the process of literary formations for refugees. Because refugees are not national subjects and their literary expressions do not easily fit within a disciplinary canon, refugee literature challenges diasporic ideas about migration and home. For Hmong Americans who do not have a geographic homeland and whose writing systems remain unrecognized, the act of writing carries the political and epistemological stakes of "writing into existence." I argue that the refugee's writing on the run maps a deterritorialized Hmong subjectivity that is mobile and tied to place. Writing on the run shifts the paradigm of knowledge and power to assert Hmong reimaginations of home not tied to the nation-state. The deterritorialized subject informed by Hmong American literary formations creates the possibility for affiliations across racial boundaries, especially with Latinos in California's Central Valley who share similar migration histories and experiences of racialization. © 2016 MELUS: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. All rights reserved.

ISSN:

0163755X (ISSN)

DOI:

10.1093/melus/mlw031

Identifier:

HmongStudies3399