Playing (with) stereotypes: Comedy and the construction of Asian American identities.

摘要

This dissertation examines the ideological function of comedy and the strategies of comic racial representation---what I will be generally referring to as "race play". From the vast body of Asian American studies literature, we know that the prevalent stereotypes of Asians as foreign, grotesque, monstrous, and deviant have instigated many legal, social, and political anti-Asian actions. These "controlling images" are "generated by the dominant group to help justify the economic exploitation and social oppression of Asian American men and women over time" (Espiritu 87). And while these stereotypes often lead to tragic consequences like legal and social exclusion and bodily harm, the stereotypes themselves are often not solemn representations of Asians but comical ones. How comedy, particularly comical cultural representations, operates as an oppressive ideological discourse that has restricted the life choices of Asian Americans is one of the central concerns of this dissertation. The other is how and why Asian Americans are utilizing strategies of comic representation to negotiate, contest, and even reproduce the stereotypes imposed on them.