Queer Male Asian American Disidentification in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and Neotenica

Abstract

This paper offers a reading of two recent novels that grapple with queer male Asian American identity, Ocean Vuong’s novel, On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous (2019) and Joon Oluchi Lee’s Neotenica (2020), analyzing them in part through Jose Muñoz’s concept of “disidentification.” This concept, although produced by and for Latinx queers, is useful for exploring the simultaneous subversion of and attraction to American white patriarchal hegemony by those excluded from it. Research in the past has examined On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019) from various angles, such as Cho (2022), examining refugee and queer shame, and Slopek (2021) looking at non-normative masculinities. Little research exists about Neotenica (2020) due to its recency. Utilizing queer theory, this paper builds off of previous research on On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019) and adds to the analysis through the comparison with Neotenica (2020). At first look, the two books provide seemingly contrasting stories, with one appearing to affirm the stereotype of Asian men as submissive, desexualized, and feminine, the other turning this stereotype on its head. But on closer inspection, they are similar stories that both provide a nuanced look at queer Asian American male disidentification that does not define it as purely empowering or disempowering.