120515 Comparative Literature 2DW Native Speaker - Economical migration - From exile, violence, genocide to something more choice-driven

- Story of migration to America - Immigration to Europe vs. America La Haine and Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow - France was a colonial empire (never as large as the British Empire) o US was not an empire as France or Britain o Not satellite states ruled by Europe o *** empire built upon centers and periphery (under rule of the imperial center) relationships (asymmetrical relationships) o Ontology: the very essence of something that exists (broad philosophical term) o Race: fundamentally different from all others; superiority vs. inferiority o Algeria was ruled by France (product of France itself: dportement) Only non-Arabs were considered citizens of France who could have specific political rights/relationships Post-revolutionary culture All the colonial settlers (colons) would have full citizenship rights, and later Jews as well, but not Arab Muslims By granting one group political rights and not the other, the two groups (Jews and Arab Muslims) are separated into two different colonies My Son the Fanatic - Partition: British Empire reinforced religious identities (Muslims vs. Hindus) *** Summing up: The history of the colonial empires comes back to haunt the immigrants - Going back to the imperial centers Native Speaker - Commonwealth, i.e. Puerto Rico o Has no full citizenship rights and not an independent nation; also not recognized by the UN - US claims to be an immigrant country, yet its interesting the lives of immigrants in the US - Narrator = protagonist; mid thirties; undergoing personal crisis (marriage) and finds a basis for going on in life o Ordinary sounding plotline - Second generation immigrant Korean-American o Calls himself a near-native - Themes:

o Language (suggested by title) as something fundamental, part of person, coming out of us Something that we have deep possession of Yet immigrants have trouble with this possession Cannot claim English as his native language, only near-native The novel is concerned with how people are formed differently in language language is something we are formed in; we become the individual persons we are because of the language we learned to speak How they can have different relationships with the same native tongue First major K-A novel/literature new kind of voice (language involved) of American literature o What is an immigrant novel? What do we mean by immigrant novel? o Outsiders leading back from somewhere else to US Wouldnt this mean that in fact all American literature are about immigration experience and therefore are all immigrant literatures? The reverse question: In what sense can an immigrant novel become part of American novels/literature? Elaborate voice of Henry: tells of and about himself directly o Simultaneous insider and outsider (Georg Simmels The Stranger) For most of the immigration history, Asian immigration was banned (quotas of how many people from each part of the world can immigrate to the US is heavily weighted toward the Europeans) o Legislations that affected this ratio-quota system: MacCarem-Waller Act of 1952 (infamous: also keeps out political undesirables) and Immigration & Nationality Act of 1952 o The unprecedented racial mix from immigration is fairly recent in America Father is a successful businessman: Korean grocer o Page 47: (Henrys description of his father) tough, protective of family, classic Asian patriarch (submerging), authoritarian, self pride for being a self-made man, for providing for family, for reinventing himself (capacity for self invention motif) from scratch o *** Story of success in America within an immigrant niches Has to follow a specific script as an immigrant appropriate for the country of origin