Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

Biography

Chang-Rae Lee (born July 29, 1965) is a first-generation Korean American novelist.Lee was born in Korea in 1965. He emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 3 years old. Raised in Westchester, New York, Lee attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. He graduated from Yale University with a degree in English and from the University of Oregon with a MFA in writing. He worked as a Wall Street financial analyst for a year before turning to writing full time.

Chang-rae Lee, the first Korean-American novelist to be published by a major press, focuses on the experiences of first-and second-generation immigrants. His novels explore the nuances of intergenerational relations, the problems of assimilation, and the relationship of culture and memory to identity. While these concerns link him to other contemporary Asian-American writers, Lee’s fiction also draws heavily on other influences.

Lee experiments with form in his first novel, Native Speaker (1995), which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and centers around a Korean American industrial spy. The novel explores themes of alienation and betrayal as felt or perpetrated by immigrants and first-generation citizens, and played out in local politics. It is part detective story, part minimalist chronicle of a failing marriage, reminiscent of John Updike. His prose style has been compared to that of both John Cheever and Kazuo Ishiguro. In 1999, he published his second novel, A Gesture Life. This elaborated on his themes of identity and assimilation through the narrative of an elderly physician who remembers treating Korean comfort women during World War II. His 2004 novel Aloft received mixed notices from the critics and featured Lee’s first protagonist who is not Asian American, but a disengaged and isolated Italian-American suburbanite forced to deal with his world. Lee teaches writing at Princeton University, where he has served as the director of Princeton’s Program in Creative Writing. He is taking a sabbatical to serve as writer-in residence at Punahou School.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang-Rae_Lee

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4525/Lee-Chang-rae.html 

Bibliography 

Native Speaker – Publisher: Penguin Group (USA). March 1996

A Gesture Life – Publisher: Penguin Group (USA). October 2000

Langue natale - Publisher: Editions de l’Olivier. French. March 2003

Aloft – Publisher: Penguin Group (USA). March 2004

Turbulenzen - Publisher: Fischer Taschenbuch Vlg. April 2006

The Surrendered – Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover. April 2008 

Annotated Bibliography 

Belluck, Pam. “Being of Two Cultures and Belonging to Neither.” New York Times, July 10, 1995, B1.This article is a book review of Native Speaker, which has prompted similar soul-searching among some Koreans and other Asian-American readers. It has explored the same confusion of many Asian-American people. 

Homans, John. “Soft Aloft - Chang-rac Lee’s new novel of the Long Island suburgs, Aloft, is billowing and insubstantial, like a cloud on a summer afternoon.” New York Book Review, Mar 1, 2004.It is a book review of Aloft. The author compared Aloft with Lee’s first two novels, and described the meaning of the title of the book. 

Kakutani, Michiko. “BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Fitting In Perfectly on the Outside, but Lost Within.” The New York Times. April7, 2008.Review of Change-Rae Lee’s novel, “A Gesture Life.” This article compares “A Gesture Life” with “Native Speaker” by comparing belonging, assimilation, self-knowledge, and genuine emotional connection.  

Cooper, Rand Richards. “Excess Identities.” The New York Times. April 9, 1995A review of a novel, “Native Speaker,” which focuses on the character of the book, Henry, and how he is almost a reflection of the “American immigrant.” 

Weesner, Ted. “Some-thang to Behold.” Powel’s Books. September 17, 2006.Review of “Aloft.” The review goes into intensive description of the main character of the book, Jerry. Also the review focuses on the language style that it is written in.

Biography 

In 1969 in New York City, Colson Whitehead was born.  He grew up in Manhattan.  He attended Trinity School, eventually attending Harvard College, the undergraduate college of Harvard Universtiy.  He graduated in 1991.  After graduating, he returned to New York and is now residing in Brooklyn.

            Following graduation, Whitehead worked as an assistant editor for Village Voice.  He then became a pop culture critic where he had the duties of writing reviews for books and music.  Eventually he became the magazines television columnist.  His other writings have been featured in Vibe, New York Times, New York Magazine, and Newsday. 

            Whitehead had his first novel, The Intuitionist, published in 1999 and won a Whiting Writers’ Award in 2000.  He was also praised as “Writer on the Verge” by the Voice Literary Supplement.  The novel was well-liked by many, including Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle, who named it the Best Book of the Year, and GQ, who named it one of the Top Twenty Books of the Millennium.  The next novel that was published was John Henry Days in 2001.  It was named one of the “Best 5 Books of the Year” by New York Times and was acclaimed by Newsweek, the Washington Post, and USA Today to name a few.  The novel was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Anisfield-Wolf Prize for its issues of race and the Young Lions Award.

            In 2002, Whitehead received the MacArthur Fellowship.  The following year his third book, The Colossus of New York, was published; his only nonfiction book to date.  Next to be published was Apex Hides the Hurt in 2006.  It was renowned as one of the New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books of the Year and was well-received by Entertainment Weekly, the New York Observer, and the Charleston Gazette.

Sources

http://books.google.com/books?id=Sl5kaqcSSAcC&pg=PA333&lpg=PA333&dq=colson+whitehead+1969+new+york+city&source=web&ots=ZlaZ-ssfFY&sig=fyWWYxeN9YP1qSz1RDKgbzKnGJI&hl=en#PPA333,M1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apex_Hides_the_Hurt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colson_Whitehead

http://www.colsonwhitehead.com/biography.shtml

 Bibliography 

Whitehead, Colson. Apex Hides the Hurt. New York: Anchor Books, 2007.

Whitehead, Colson. John Henry Days. New York: Anchor Books, 2001.

Whitehead, Colson. The Colossus of New York. New York, Anchor Books, 2004.

Whitehead, Colson. The Intuitionist. New York: Anchor Books, 2000. Annotated Bibliography

1.) Aubrey, Bryan.  “The Intuitionist.”  Work Analysis on Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist. Magill’s Literary Annual 2000.  Salem Press, Inc. 

 Aubrey writes about Whitehead’s work, The Intuitionist and explores deep seriousness issues of racism and urban decay, as well as different ideas about ways of acquiring knowledge.

2.) Bérubé, Michael. “Race and Modernity in Colson Whitehead’s the Intuitionist.” The Holodeck in the Garden: Science and Technology in Contemporary American Fiction. Ed. Peter Freese and Charles B. Harris. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive, xxviii, 2004. 163-178.

The essay examines the themes of race and modernity in the novel “The Intuitionist,” by Whitehead.  A plot overview is given of the novel along with a description of the physical and social setting.  The prominence of the main character’s disability is examined.

3.) Butler, Robert. “The Postmodern City in Colson Whitehead’s the Colossus of New York and Jeffrey Renard Allen’s Rails Under My Back.” CLA Journal 48.1 (2004): 71-87.

4.) Cassidy, Thomas.  “John Henry Days.”  Work Analysis on Colson Whitehead’s John HenryDays.  Magill’s Literary Annual 2002.  Salem Press, Inc.

 This is a review done of Whitehead’s novel, John Henry Days. Cassidy claim this book takes on a “serio-comic” view of race and the meaning in American life.  

5.) Liggins, Saundra. “The Urban Gothic Vision of Colson Whitehead’s the Intuitionist (1999).” African American Review 40.2 (2006): 358-69

This article discusses how Whitehead’s book, The Intuitionist, fits into contemporary African American gothic literature. Whitehead uses gothic landscape and conventions to show African American’s struggle for upward mobility and their bleak outlook on life. Liggins argues that the setting of the story illustrates the isolation African Americans face. Whitehead sets up a contrast with the poverty and prosperity of the characters, showing the racial and gender discrimination that took place in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

6.) Sherman, Suzan. “Colson Whitehead.” Bomb 76 (2001): 74-80.

Sherman writes about Whitehead’s metaphors for upward mobility, race, and religion in the book, The Intuitionist. She also writes about other works by Whitehead, including his ability to bring forgotten parts of history back into modern day in John Henry Days.