JOURNAL ARTICLE

Rereading Ha Jin's Novels in a Transpacific Context: Human Rights and Human Wrongs.

  • Published In: Modern Fiction Studies, 2023, v. 69, n. 1. P. 118 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Shu, Yuan 3 of 3

Abstract

This essay rereads Ha Jin's two novels, Waiting and A Free Life , in a transpacific context. I designate this transpacific context to include both the movement of US economic and military expansionism in the Asia Pacific and the possibility of deploying an alternative epistemology and ontology from that geopolitical region as both a response and negotiation. Within this context, I argue that Jin's novels do not simply challenge human rights abuse in China as presumed by critics but rather raise broader historical and cultural questions about different perceptions and understandings of these rights in what Gayatri Spivak theorizes as "responsibility-based" ("Righting Wrongs" 549) and "rights-based" (536) societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Modern Fiction Studies. 2023/03, Vol. 69, Issue 1, p118
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2023
  • ISSN:0026-7724
  • DOI:10.1353/mfs.2023.0005
  • Accession Number:162706492
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