Earticle

초록

영어

This study contends that Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker is a contemporary narrative that reflects the unchanging view of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners in the United States. Henry Park is on a personal quest to become a “native speaker” by mastering the use of the English language only to realize that this is a futile endeavor. Henry’s quest and eventual realization in regard to his identity, both personal and cultural, is a reflection of segmented assimilation and that his acculturation is a performance of the socially constructed roles created for Asian Americans by the dominant white society. Henry fails to see that there are two versions of America; an America of “dreams” and an America of “experience.” Unlike his father, who understands the America of “experience” from a working-class immigrant’s perspective, Henry pursues his acculturation from a naive perception that the dominant white majority sees him as an equal. The American “dream” of racial equality and egalitarianism are ideas that contribute to his identity crisis. The study concludes that Henry’s inability to distinguish between the two Americas eventually becomes the reason why his assimilation into American society is so elusive and unattainable.

목차

I. Introduction
 II. Asian American Assimilation
 III. Performing Americanness Using Disidentifiers
 IV. The Korean American Dilemma
 V. Conclusion
 Works Cited
 Abstract

키워드

저자

• Kim, Kitai [ Hannam University ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  영어영문학연구 [The Jungang Journal of English Language and Literature]

• 간기

  계간

• pISSN

  1598-3293

• 수록기간

  1968~2026

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 840 DDC 810