Reading Together, Reading Apart: Identity, Belonging, and South Asian American Community Contributor(s): Bhalla, Tamara (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252081951 ISBN-13: 9780252081958 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $25.74 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2016 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - Asian American Studies - Literary Criticism | Asian - Indic - Language Arts & Disciplines | Readers |
LCCN: 2016950833 |
Series: Asian American Experience |
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.9" W x 8.9" (0.65 lbs) 224 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Asian - Cultural Region - Indian |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Often thought of as a solitary activity, the practice of reading can in fact encode the complex politics of community formation. Engagement with literary culture represents a particularly integral facet of identity formation--and serves as an expression of a sense of belonging--within the South Asian diaspora in the United States. Tamara Bhalla blends a case study with literary and textual analysis to illuminate this phenomenon. Her fascinating investigation considers institutions from literary reviews to the marketplace and social media and other technologies, as well as traditional forms of literary discussion like book clubs and academic criticism. Throughout, Bhalla questions how her subjects' circumstances, shared race and class, and desires limit the values they ascribe to reading. She also examines how ideology circulating around a body of literature or a self-selected, imagined community of readers shapes reading itself and influences South Asians' powerful, if contradictory, relationship with ideals of cultural authenticity. |