Literature and Race in the Democracy of Goods

Abstract

This book conducts a comparative study of three literary traditions – post-1960 Asian American, Asian Canadian and Black experimental poetry – which are usually examined separately. In so doing, it intervenes in conventional understandings of postwar North American racial formation and argues that through poetry we can examine the intersection between race and capitalism. Arguing that contemporary Black, Asian American and Asian Canadian poets such as Myung Mi Kim, Nathaniel Macket, Larissa Lai and Erica Hunt challenge established definitions of race, this book develops an account of experimental poetry’s understanding of race as a range of relational configurations of subjects within racial groups and across racial divisions. In sum, this book redefines some of the basic terms of analysis of contemporary US poetry and poetics, critical race/ethnic studies, racial capitalism and contemporary theories of comparative racialization.