Asian American literature dates back to the close of the 19th century, and during the years following World War II it significantly expanded in volume and diversity. Monumental in scope, this encyclopedia surveys Asian American literature from its origins through 2007. Included are more than 270 alphabetically arranged entries on writers, major works, significant historical events, and important terms and concepts. Thus the encyclopedia gives special attention to the historical, social, cultural, and legal contexts surrounding Asian American literature and central to the Asian American experience. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and cites works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography of essential print and electronic resources. While literature students will value this encyclopedia as a guide to writings by Asian Americans, the encyclopedia also supports the social studies curriculum by helping students use literature to learn about Asian American history and culture, as it pertains to writers from a host of Asian ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including Afghans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Iranians, Indians, Vietnamese, Hawaiians, and other Asian Pacific Islanders.
The encyclopedia supports the literature curriculum by helping students learn more about Asian American literature. In addition, it supports the social studies curriculum by helping students learn about the Asian American historical and cultural experience.
About the Author: Guiyou Huang, PhD, is dean of Biscayne College and professor of English at St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida. He is author or editor of over ten books published in the United States, China, and Great Britain, including The Columbia Guide to Asian American Literature Since 1945 (2006), Asian American Literary Studies (2005), and Whitmanism, Imagism, and Modernism in China and America (1997). He is also the author of many articles and reviews in English on, among others, Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound, and has published essays on Mao Zedong, William Butler Yeats, Jean Rhys, Sinclair Lewis, and William Faulkner in Chinese. Dr. Huang is a guest research fellow at the Chinese American Literature Research Center at Beijing Foreign Studies University as well as honorary professor at Yantai University and Qufu Teachers University, Shandong. Most recently he was a visiting scholar at ETS in Princeton, New Jersey.
