Behind "Aiiieeeee!": A New History of Asian American Literature

FAIN: FEL-272833-21

Tara Fickle
University of Oregon (Eugene, OR 97403-5219)

Research, writing, and digital development of a book examining the publication history of the first anthology of Asian-American literature, Aiiieeeee!

“Behind Aiiieeeee!: A New History of Asian American Literature” is a scholarly monograph and accompanying interactive, open-access online resource that transforms our current understanding of the genesis of contemporary Asian American literature. Its focus is the 1974 publication of Aiiieeeee!, a canonical and deeply controversial Asian American literary anthology. Read widely and reviewed everywhere from The New Yorker to Rolling Stone, Aiiieeeee! was the first – and remains the only – Asian American literary anthology to achieve the status of trade publication rather than an academic one primarily for classroom use. The monograph, based on archival research of an enormous collection of previously inaccessible documents, demonstrates how Asian American literature of the post-WW2 period intersected with countercultural energies and US-Asian military conflicts of the 1970s to create new modes of writing and reading about what it meant to be a racial minority in America.

Associated Products

“Archiving Aiiieeeee!” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Archiving Aiiieeeee!”
Author: Tara Fickle
Abstract: Association for Asian American Studies Presentation on early archive findings
Date: 4/14/2022
Conference Name: Association for Asian American Studies

Teaching Aiiieeeee! (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Teaching Aiiieeeee!
Abstract: Recent anti-Asian hate and resulting activism, in conjunction with the Black Lives Matter movement, have reignited the possibilities of interracial solidarity. This crucial coalition-building can best be understood through its historical antecedents: the social protest movements of the 1960s and 70s and the call for ethnic studies curricula in the American education system. Emblematic of this call for Asian Americans was a literary anthology, Aiiieeeee! (1974), which insisted on an Asian American voice that went far beyond the stereotypical cry of Asian characters depicted in early American films and comic books that inspired its title. This webinar will be led by Professor Tara Fickle, who helped to get the anthology reissued in 2019, wrote the new foreword, and is developing an associated digital archive. It will provide educators with grounding to teach Asian American literature, contextualizing major events and themes (such as Japanese American mass incarceration, the racial “in-between” position of Asian Americans as model minorities, and the rise of China) that have informed this underappreciated body of literature. Educators will learn to effectively lead students in discussions of a complex racial history, deploy accurate and up-to-date vocabulary, and connect contemporary events on the domestic and international stage to their history.
Author: Tara Fickle
Date: 4/1/2023
Location: Webinar
Primary URL: https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/webinars/

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