Shirley Temple Dreams is a collection of linked stories about Japanese Americans before, during, and after World War II, the times ranging from the turn of the century to the postwar fifties. Eleven stories are structured into three parts: stories that are situated in Japan; stories in American internment camps; and stories of postwar diaspora and return. The collection opens with a story about a writer who realizes the centrality of stories in her life, and it closes with a story about a man who learns to share his stories. These stories are about passagesâof time and place; of one generation that strides into the future and another that searches the past; of the move from foreign soil to the fields and forests of the western United States; of settlement, displacement, and resettlement. The stories are set against the backdrop of social trauma, but they are foremost about peopleâcharacters in trouble, man-made and self-madeâand how they cope, survive, or fail. I have brought to these stories my interest in Japanese culture, literature, and folk lore as well as American popular culture. The tension between the two sides of the hyphenated identity, Japanese-American, is a major presence. Inclusion vs. exclusion, the group vs. the individual, duty vs. freedom are classical themes now seen through the lens of an "other." / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2008. / April 9, 2008. / World War II, Japanese-American, Fiction, Immigration+, Internment / Includes bibliographical references. / Mark Winegardner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Neil Jumonville, Outside Committee Member; Robert Olen Butler, Committee Member; Julianna Baggott, Committee Member; Christopher Shinn, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_175610 |
| Contributors | Louis, Shirley S. (authoraut), Winegardner, Mark (professor directing dissertation), Jumonville, Neil (outside committee member), Butler, Robert Olen (committee member), Baggott, Julianna (committee member), Shinn, Christopher (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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