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1 results

  • 13 - Coming to America, “Land of the Free”

  • from Part II - Graphic Novels and the Quest for an American Diversity
  • Edited by Jan Baetens, KU Leuven, Belgium, Hugo Frey, University of Chichester, Fabrice Leroy, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel
    Published online:
    10 January 2024
    Print publication:
    28 September 2023, pp 226-241

  • Summary

    Stories of Asian immigration to North America have developed a series of recognizable tropes, from exile for economic or political reasons to arrival and the subsequent struggles of discrimination, assimilation, and self-identity. This chapter identifies the preferred themes of graphic novel publishers, who continue to seek and legitimize a familiar model of Asian American narrative: that of origin and identity stories, often autobiographical in nature, in which authors grapple with assimilation difficulties and express identity challenges, notably when self-acceptance and community acceptance are not always aligned (e.g., in celebrated works by Adrian Tomine and Gene Luen Yang). The chapter also considers other types of narratives: family stories in which a mixed heritage challenges social norms (Lynda Barry), graphic memoirs from second-generation Asian Americans on their immigrant mothers and their cultural transition, and refugee narratives from authors of the Vietnamese diaspora who reflect on the Vietnam War and the perilous immigration of “boat people.”