In Our Own Words: Asian Mixed-Race Identity in Contemporary Canadian Literature
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Authors
Fernandes, Rachel
Date
2025-02-28
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Mixed-race , Canadian , Multiracial , Canadian literature , Asian , Asian Canadian , Literature , Contemporary
Alternative Title
Abstract
This dissertation examines Asian mixed-race identity in twenty-first-century Canadian literature. Mixed-race people have been subject to two persistent stereotypes: historically, they were pathologized as perpetually confused about their racial identity, but more recently, multiracial people are celebrated as the embodiment of a post-racial future. Although critical mixed-race studies is an expanding field, critical study of Asian mixed-race literature in Canada remains scarce. My dissertation addresses this research gap by focusing on recent literature written by Asian mixed-race authors who illuminate the complex processes of multiracial identity development in their texts and reject stereotyping.
I trace commonalities in the discussion of mixed-race identity development in Tessa McWatt’s, David Chariandy’s, Avan Jogia’s, Leanne Dunic’s, Kyo Maclear’s, Saleema Nawaz’s, William Ping’s, and Jia Qing Wilson-Yang’s texts and the new possibilities they present for multiracial identity expression. The memoirs, multimedia projects, and novels present a range of multiracial experiences but share a common understanding that mixed-race identity is two things: personal and malleable. As I argue, multiracial identity is personally constructed, situationally adaptable, and in flux throughout the mixed-race person’s life.
This dissertation thus articulates how contemporary Asian mixed-race literature in Canada enriches and complicates the field of critical mixed-race studies, which has been preoccupied with American race relations. Furthermore, these texts contribute to Asian Canadian literary studies in that they engage with the tension between Canada’s past racist treatment of Asian people and respond to the more recent racist construction of Asian people as the “model minority” from a white settler perspective. Ultimately, my discussion shows how Asian multiracial literature resists the constraints of national myths that portray Canada as a post-colonial, racially harmonious nation and reveals that complex racial dynamics continue to affect personal and national identity.
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ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.