Ecocriticism and Asian American Literature: Gold Mountains, Weedflowers and Murky Globes

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION                                                                                     1

1.1 ECOCRITICISM: SURVEYING THE FIELD          

1.2 RACIALIZED OTHERS: THE ONES LEFT OUT   

Chapter 2: PRELUDE - entering nature's nation                                           29

CHAPTER 3: "Naturalizing" Asian Americans: Edith Eaton                         47

3.1. Native / Nativism         

3.2. Native / Nature / Naturalization        

3.3. Naturalization / Animalization: Pets and Pests          

3.3.1. Pets and curiosities

3.3.2. Pests: The Yellow Peril           

3.4. Edith Eaton's Limited Options

3.5. Eaton's "Fauna": Resisting Naturalization    

3.6. Eaton's "Flora": Benevolent Naturalization

3.7. The Quandary of Racist Animalization            

CHAPTER 4: Thinking (like a) Gold Mountain: Maxine Hong Kingston and Shawn Wong                                                                           93

4.1. Asian/American Land(scapes) 

4.1.1. Asian Americans and the American Land: A Fragile Connection      

4.1.2. Nature and Work: Asian Americans Changing the face of the Earth            

4.2. Shawn Wong's Homebase: Claiming America through Inlanding      

4.2.1. NATURE AS METAPHORICAL TROPE          

4.2.2. FROM ANALOGY TO HUMAN INLANDING               

4.2.3. "YELLOWING" THE LANDSCAPED INDIAN

4.3. Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men: Claiming America through Land Empathy         

4.3.1. LAND ETHICS AND LAND EMPATHY           

4.3.2. HOMELANDS: HOMELESSNESS AND BELONGING  

4.3.3. CLAIMING AMERICA THROUGH LAND EMPATHY   

4.4. AGENCY AND VOICE: CAN (SUBALTERN) NATURE SPEAK?      

CHAPTER 5: Cultivating the Anti-Campo: AN ENVIRONMENTAL READING OF "Internment Literature"                                                                           155

5.1- FROM CAMP TO CAMPO 

5.2- FROM HOMO SACER TO HOMO ECOLOGICUS           

5.2.1. ANIMAL SPACES AND ENVIRONMENTAL SHOCK   

5.2.2. A DIALOGUE WITH THE NEW ENVIRONMENT         

5.3. THE PASTORAL AND THE SUBLIME: ESCAPISM OR EMPOWERMENT?  

5.4. CULTIVATING THE ANTICAMPO     

CHAPTER 6: Facing the End of Nature: Karen Tei Yamashita and Ruth Ozeki     217

6.1. ECOCRITICISM AND THE END OF NATURE   

6.2. KAREN TEI yamashita'S THROUGH THE ARC OF THE RAINFOREST: Transnational-Transnatural POST-PastoralISM            

6.2.1. PLASTIC FLESH

6.2.2. THE JUNKYARD IN THE JUNGLE  

6.2.3. TRANSNATIONAL-TRANSNATURAL POST-PASTORALISM     

6.3. RUTH OZEKI'S NOVELS: MATERIALITY AND IMMATERIALITY  

6.3.1. MEAT, POTATOES AND GYRES    

6.3.2. Time-SPACE Beings: A Tale for A Globalized World   

6.3.2. BUDDHISM AND QUANTUM PHYSICS: a tale of the invisible world       

6.4. THE MANY LAYERS OF THE OZONE LAYER, OR HOW TO RECONCILE THE MATERIAL AND THE IMMATERIAL

Chapter 7: CODA: GOLD MOUNTAINS, WEEDFLOWERS AND MURKY GLOBES          285