Narratives of Dislocation in the Novels of Karen Tei Yamashita, Joy Kogawa, and Julie Otsuka
Keyword(s):
This essay aligns three genealogical “Japanese” narratives. Wong first addresses Yamashita’s novels of migrant Brazil and residential California. Analysis follows of Joy Kogawa’s Obasan with its portrait of World War II internment in British Columbia. Julie Otsuka’s When The Emperor Was Divine is considered for its portrait of Topaz Camp, Utah, and The Buddha in the Attic as the story of Japanese picture brides. Each is compared with the other, subject and narrative technique.