Chow, Sheat Fun
(2012)
From Silenced Victims To National Heroines : Acts Of Impersonation In Narratives Of Le Ly Hayslip And Nora Okja Keller.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
This study focuses on the narratives of Le Ly Hayslip and Nora Okja
Keller as they explore traumatic events that resulted from transnational histories;
the Vietnam War (1959-1975) and the Japanese occupation of Korea during
World War II in which the issue of comfort women emerged. Through Hayslip’s
autobiographies When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War,
Woman of Peace and Keller’s novel, Comfort Woman, the meaning of women’s
sexuality and its interaction with issues of memory, nation and nationalism are
explored as thematic anchors.
As Asian American women’s national loyalty is often determined through
their sexual alliances, their sexuality and identities are active sites of contestation
and revision. As a result of conflicting definitions regarding their multiple
identities, Asian American women’s narratives reveal the negotiation of multiple
affiliations. Various subversive strategies as forms of resistance are often
employed in their narratives to re-negotiate the positions and identities of their
female protagonists as national subjects and not merely sexual objects or victims.
Drawing on memory, autobiographical, deconstruction and feminist
studies, this study shows how Hayslip and Keller employ “acts of impersonation”
as subversive strategies in their writings to counter racist and sexist construction
of Asian American women’s identities. Their writings are performative acts that
reveal the negotiations of multiple affiliations and challenge the notions of
“authenticity” and “truths” associated with productions of memory.
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