Citizenship and Participation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Wong
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
General Argument ◽  
Identity Narratives ◽  
Economic Attainment ◽  
Hmong Americans ◽  
War Experience ◽  
Motivation To Participate

Chapter One introduces the general argument developed in subsequent chapters. In Hmong American communities, political participation arises and deepens through inter-generational social mechanisms of voting. The process is aided by local institutions that educate newcomers in participatory skills and aid reconstruction of identity narratives. Present-day notions about citizenship rights and a desire for political inclusion are influenced by the Vietnam War experience of the Hmong Americans and their status as stateless refugees after the war. The relatively low levels of social-economic attainment of the Hmong Americans compared to other Asian Americans helps explain the motivation to participate in politics to press for public policy that would address poverty and educational reform

Voting Together

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Wong
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Saint Paul ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Skills ◽  
Identity Narratives ◽  
Hmong Americans ◽  
Hmong American

This book examines the political experience of the Hmong Americans immigrants, who first came to the United States as refugees of Vietnam War. In growing numbers, candidates of Hmong American ethnicity have competed successfully in elections to win seats in local and state legislative bodies in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. At the same time, average levels of Hmong American educational attainment still lag far behind levels in the U.S. population and high rates of poverty persist. Their relatively high levels of political engagement defy the logic of resource-based theories of voting, which explain a greater propensity of some individuals to vote resources available to them, such as higher levels of educational attainment or income compared to others Intergenerational mechanisms of social voting underlie political participation of Hmong Americans. Individuals are mobilized to vote through intergenerational social connections already established in associational, neighborhood, ethnic community, family, and clan networks. Identity narratives adapted to modern-day circumstances and popular notions from ancient oral texts serve to motivate collective action to redress of disparities of economic opportunity and cultural misrecognition. Only when local institutions effectively teach civic and political skills to immigrants and their descendants can political participation be sustained and deepened to combine voting with effective policy advocacy, the building of alliances across racial-ethnic divides, and collective action. The research included interviews of community leaders and grassroots residents from diverse backgrounds, primarily in three cities: Fresno, California; Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Hickory, North Carolina.

War Noir

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Trott
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
War Trauma ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Raymond Chandler ◽  
Lost Generation ◽  
Philip Marlowe ◽  
Literary Figure ◽  
American Society ◽  
War Experience

Hard-boiled writer Raymond Chandler created his detective Philip Marlowe not as the idealisation of heroic individualism as is commonly perceived, but as an authentic individual subjected to real psychological frailties resulting from his traumatic experiences during World War One. Marlowe’s characterisation goes beyond the traditional chivalric readings and can instead be interpreted as an authentic representation of a traumatised veteran in American society. Substituting the horror of the trenches for the corruption of the city, Chandler’s disillusioned protagonist and his representation of an uncaring American society resonate strongly with the dislocation of the Lost Generation. Consequently, it is profitable to consider Chandler as both a generic writer and a genuine literary figure. This book re-examines important primary documents highlighting extensive discrepancies in existing biographical narratives of Chandler’s war experience, and unveils an account that is significantly different from that of his biographers. Utilizing psychological behavioural interpretation to interrogate Chandler’s novels demonstrates the variety of post-traumatic symptoms that tormented Chandler and his protagonist. A close reading of his personal papers reveals the war trauma subconsciously encoded in Marlowe’s characterisation. This conflation of the hard-boiled style and war experience – a war noir – has influenced many contemporary crime writers, particularly in the traumatic aftermath of the Vietnam War. This work offers a new understanding of Chandler’s traumatic war experience, how that experience established the traditional archetype of detective fiction, and how this reading of his work allows Chandler to transcend generic limitations to be recognised as a key twentieth century literary figure.

scholarly journals Us vs. Them: Cultural Encounters in Warzones through Reading American War Literature

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
Jasna Poljak Rehlicki
Keyword(s):  
Vietnam War ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
General Strategy ◽  
American Fiction ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
American Military ◽  
Iraq Wars ◽  
American War Literature ◽  
War Experience ◽  
The Cold War

In 1996, Samuel Huntington argued that the end of the Cold War Era marked the end of global instability based on ideological and economic differences and preferences. However, he did not predict any kind of a peaceful future for humankind but maintained that future conflicts will arise from cultural differences. The clashes are inevitable, he claims, as long as one side (usually the West) insists on imposing universalism to other civilizations whose cultural awareness is on the rise. Ever since the Vietnam War, American military tacticians have believed that the knowledge and understanding of the enemy’s culture will lead to victory, and American military academies and schools are dedicating more attention to cultural studies within their general strategy. This paper is based on the reading and analysis of several American fiction and non-fiction novels from the Vietnam and the Iraq Wars. Since all of these works are first-hand accounts of war experience and soldiers’ cultural encounters with their ‘adversaries’, the research is focused on the (im)possibility of soldiers’ true understanding and appreciation of different cultures/civilizations during wartime. It also suggests that knowing the enemy is to no avail if wars are fought with the goal of Westernizing other cultures.

Reconstructing Identity Narratives

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Wong
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Identity Narratives ◽  
Hmong Americans ◽  
Performing Art

Chapter Two examines the cultural and political meaning of identity stories as articulated by Hmong Americans, including examples of how freedom and parity are expressed in these narratives. These stories have formed through an amalgam of lived experience and values. The process of construction and telling of the narratives is participatory. The engagement of ordinary people in conversations and creation of interpretive stories and performing art productions is what animates the identity narratives in civic and political life.

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