Gish Jen
Encyclopedia
Gish Jen (born Lillian Jen, nicknamed for the actress Lillian Gish
, in 1955 in Long Island
, New York
) is a contemporary American
writer
.
. Her birth name is Lillian. Her parents emigrated from China
in the 1940s, her mother from Shanghai
and her father from Yixing
. She grew up in Queens
, New York, then Yonkers
, then Scarsdale
. She graduated from Harvard University
in 1977 with a BA
in English
, and later attended Stanford Business School (1979-1980), but dropped out in favor of the University of Iowa
Writers' Workshop
, where she earned her MFA
in fiction
in 1983.
. Her piece "Birthmates", was selected as one of The Best American Short Stories of The Century by John Updike
. Her works include four novel
s: Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, The Love Wife, and World and Town
. She has also written a collection of short fiction, Who's Irish?
.
Her first novel, Typical American, attempts to redefine Americanness
as a preoccupation with identity. "As soon as you ask yourself the question, "What does it mean to be Irish-American, Iranian-American
, Greek-American, you are American," she has said.
Her second novel, Mona in the Promised Land concerns the invention of ethnicity; it features a Chinese-American adolescent who converts to Judaism. The Love Wife, her third novel, portrays an Asian American
family with interracial
parents and both biological and adopted children as "the new American family". She asks the question "What is a family?" as a way of asking, "What is a nation?"
The newest book, World and Town, portrays a fragile America, its small towns challenged by globalization, development, fundamentalism, and immigration, as well as the ripples sent out by 9/11. It poses the question, Can the center hold?
Jen's writing confounds categories like the "immigrant novel," probing societal constructions and boundaries of every stripe, and moving in a direction that seeks to enrich and even redefine what it means to be American.
database, March 2008)
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
, in 1955 in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
) is a contemporary American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Background
Gish Jen is a second generation Chinese AmericanChinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
. Her birth name is Lillian. Her parents emigrated from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in the 1940s, her mother from Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and her father from Yixing
Yixing
Yixing is a county-level city in Jiangsu province, in eastern China with a population of 1.3 million. It is well-known for its Yixing clay and the pottery -- especially the "zisha"-style teapots -- made from the clay...
. She grew up in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, New York, then Yonkers
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
, then Scarsdale
Scarsdale, New York
Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the northern suburbs of New York City. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several villages...
. She graduated from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1977 with a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in English
English major
The English Major is a term in the United States and a few other countries for an undergraduate university degree focused around the consumption, analysis, and production of texts in the English language...
, and later attended Stanford Business School (1979-1980), but dropped out in favor of the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
Writers' Workshop
Iowa Writers' Workshop
The Program in Creative Writing, more commonly known as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, is a highly regarded graduate-level creative writing program in the United States...
, where she earned her MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
in 1983.
Fiction
Several of her short stories have been reprinted in The Best American Short StoriesBest American Short Stories
The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.-Edward O'Brien:The...
. Her piece "Birthmates", was selected as one of The Best American Short Stories of The Century by John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
. Her works include four novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s: Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, The Love Wife, and World and Town
World and Town
World and Town is a novel by Gish Jen that follows a Chinese American widow and her friendship with a family of Cambodian immigrants. The novel describes the difficulties encountered in the lives of characters as they embrace immigration, rationalism, and religious fundamentalism.Set in New...
. She has also written a collection of short fiction, Who's Irish?
Who's Irish? (short story)
Who's Irish? is a 224-page short story collection written in 1999 by Gish Jen.-Stories:Who's Irish?BirthmatesThe Water Faucet VisionDuncan in ChinaJust WaitChinIn the American SocietyHouse. House. Home.Who's Irish- Plot Summary :...
.
Her first novel, Typical American, attempts to redefine Americanness
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
as a preoccupation with identity. "As soon as you ask yourself the question, "What does it mean to be Irish-American, Iranian-American
Iranian-American
Iranian-Americans are Americans of Iranian ancestry or people possessing Iranian and American dual citizenship.Iranian-Americans are amongst the most highly educated groups in the United States...
, Greek-American, you are American," she has said.
Her second novel, Mona in the Promised Land concerns the invention of ethnicity; it features a Chinese-American adolescent who converts to Judaism. The Love Wife, her third novel, portrays an Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
family with interracial
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
parents and both biological and adopted children as "the new American family". She asks the question "What is a family?" as a way of asking, "What is a nation?"
The newest book, World and Town, portrays a fragile America, its small towns challenged by globalization, development, fundamentalism, and immigration, as well as the ripples sent out by 9/11. It poses the question, Can the center hold?
Jen's writing confounds categories like the "immigrant novel," probing societal constructions and boundaries of every stripe, and moving in a direction that seeks to enrich and even redefine what it means to be American.
Honors and awards
- 2009 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member
- 2006 PBS American Masters Program on the American Novel, featured writer
- 2003 Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 2003 Fulbright Fellowship to the People's Republic of China
- 2001 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship
- 1999 Best American Short Stories of the Century (John Updike, ed.)
- 1999 Lannan Literary Award
- 1995 Best American Short Stories of 1995
- 1992 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
- 1991 National Book Critics' Circle Award Finalist
- 1988 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
- 1988 Best American Short Stories of 1988
- 1986 Radcliffe College Bunting Institute Fellowship
Critical studies
(from the MLAModern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature...
database, March 2008)
- "Interethnic Relationships in Chang-rae LeeChang-Rae LeeChang-rae Lee is a Korean American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Princeton University, where he has served as the director of Princeton's Program in Creative Writing.-Early life:...
's Native Speaker and Gish Jen's Birthmates." By: Brada-Williams, Noelle. pp. 18–25 IN: Goldblatt, Roy (ed.); Nyman, Jopi (ed. and introd.); Stotesbury, John A. (ed.); Singh, Amritjit (afterword); Close Encounters of an Other Kind: New Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity, and American Studies. Joensuu, Finland: Faculty of Humanities, University of Joensuu; 2005. xv, 278 pp. (book article) - "A Quartet of Voices in Recent American Literature."She hates to write but her dad madeher. By: Burns, Gerald T.; Philippine American Studies Journal, 1991; 3: 1-8. (journal article)
- "Material Bodies and Performative Identities: Mona, Neil, and the Promised Land." By: Byers, Michele; Philip Roth Studies, 2006 Fall; 2 (2): 102-20. (journal article)
- "Disjuncture at Home: Mapping the Domestic Cartographies of Transnationalism in Gish Jen's The Love Wife." By: Chen, Shu-ching; Tamkang Review: A Quarterly of Literary and Cultural Studies, 2006 Winter; 37 (2): 1-32. (journal article)
- "Literary Reading and Intercultural Learning-Understanding Ethnic American Fiction in the EFL-Classroom." By: Donnerstag, Jürgen; Amerikastudien/American Studies, 1992; 37 (4): 595-611. (journal article)
- "From Story to Novel and Back Again: Gish Jen's Developing Art of Short Fiction." By: Feddersen, R. C.. pp. 349–58 IN: Kaylor, Noel Harold, Jr. (ed., preface and foreword); Creative and Critical Approaches to the Short Story. Lewiston, NY: Mellen; 1997. v, 488 pp. (book article)
- "Gish Jen." By: Feddersen, R. C.. pp. 196–208 IN: Fallon, Erin (ed.); Feddersen, R. C. (ed. and introd.); Kurtzleben, James (ed.); Lee, Maurice A. (ed.); Rochette-Crawley, Susan (ed.); Rohrberger, Mary (preface); A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English. Westport, CT: Greenwood, for Society for the Study of the Short Story; 2001. xxxiv, 432 pp. (book article)
- "Reinventing a Chinese American Women's Tradition in Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land." By: Feng, Pin-chia; EurAmerica: A Journal of European and American Studies, 2002 Dec; 32 (4): 675-704. (journal article)
- "'Who's Jewish?':Some Asian-American Writers and the Jewish-American Literary Canon." By: Freedman, Jonathan; Michigan Quarterly Review, 2003 Winter; 42 (1): 230-54. (journal article)
- "Immigrant Dreams and Civic Promises: (Con-)Testing Identity in Early Jewish American Literature and Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land" By: Furman, Andrew; MELUS, 2000 Spring; 25 (1): 209-26. (journal article)
- "The Redefinition of the 'Typical Chinese' in Gish Jen's Typical American." By: Huang, Betsy; Hitting Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism, 1997 Summer; 4 (2): 61-77. (journal article)
- "'Cheap, On Sale, American Dream': Contemporary Asian American Women Writers' Responses to American Success Mythologies." By: Kafka, Phillipa. pp. 105–28 IN: Blazek, William (ed. and introd.); Glenday, Michael K. (ed. and introd.); American Mythologies: Essays on Contemporary Literature. Liverpool, England: Liverpool UP; 2005. x, 305 pp. (book article)
- "Imagined Cities of China." By: Lee, A. Robert; Wasafiri: Journal of Caribbean, African, Asian and Associated Literatures and Film, 1995 Autumn; 22: 25-30. (journal article)
- "Imagined Cities of China: Timothy MoTimothy MoTimothy Peter Mo is an Anglo-Chinese novelist. Born to a Welsh-Yorkshire mother and a Hong Kong Chinese father, Mo lived in Hong Kong until the age of 10 before he moved to Britain, studying at St John's College, Oxford.He self-publishes his books under the label "Paddleless Press".- Novels :*The...
's London, Sky LeeSky LeeSky Lee is a Canadian artist and novelist.Lee has published both feminist fiction and non-fiction and identifies as lesbian.-Personal life:...
's Vancouver, Fae Myenne NgFae Myenne NgFae Myenne Ng is an American novelist, and short story writer.-Life:She is the daughter of seamstress and a laborer, who immigrated from Guangzhou, China. She attended the University of California-Berkeley, and received her M.F.A. at Columbia University...
's San Francisco and Gish Gen's New York." By: Lee, A. Robert; Hitting Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Cultural Criticism, 1996 Fall; 4 (1): 103-19. (journal article) - "About Gish Jen." By: Lee, Don; Ploughshares, 2000 Fall; 26 (2-3): 217-22. (journal article)
- "Failed Performances of the Nation in Gish Jen's Typical American." By: Lee, Rachel. pp. 63–79 IN: Franklin, Cynthia (ed. and introd.); Hsu, Ruth (ed.); Kosanke, Suzanne (ed.); Navigating Islands and Continents: Conversations and Contestations in and around the Pacific. Honolulu, HI: College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, University of Hawaii; 2000. xxx, 275 pp. (book article)
- "Gish Jen." By: Lee, Rachel. pp. 215–32 IN: Cheung, King-Kok (ed. and introd.); Words Matter: Conversations with Asian American Writers. Honolulu, HI: U of Hawaii P, with UCLA Asian American Studies Center; 2000. 402 pp. (book article)
- The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nation and Transnation By: Lee, Rachel C.. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP; 1999. xi, 205 pp. (book)
- The Americas of Asian-American Literature: Nationalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Bulosan'sCarlos BulosanAlso known as Julius Zafra , a Filipino, an English-language novelist and poet who spent most of his life in the United States, and is best known for the semi-autobiographical America Is in the Heart.-Life and career:Carlos Bulosan was born to Ilocano parents in...
'America Is in the Heart', Jen's 'Typical American', and Hagedorn'sJessica HagedornJessica Tarahata Hagedorn is a Filipino-American playwright, writer, poet, storyteller, musician, and multimedia performance artist.-Biography:...
'Dogeaters By: Lee, Rachel C.; Dissertation Abstracts International, 1996 Feb; 56 (8): 3126A-27A. U of California, Los Angeles, 1995. (dissertation abstract) - "When the West Is One: Undoing and Re-Doing the Hegemony of U. S. Culture in Diasporic Writing by Chinese American Women." By: Lim, Shirley Geok-lin. pp. 129–38 IN: Atherton, John (ed. and introd.); Bruyère, Claire (ed. and introd.); Lire en Amérique. Paris, France: Institut d'Etudes Anglophones, Université Paris VII-Denis Diderot; 1992. 172 pp. (book article)
- "Mona on the Phone: The Performative Body and Racial Identity in Mona in the Promised Land." By: Lin, Erika T.; MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 2003 Summer; 28 (2): 47-57. (journal article)
- "Cultural Cross-Dressing in Mona in the Promised Land." By: Ling, Amy. pp. 227–36 IN: Davis, Rocío G. (ed and introd.); Ludwig, Sämi (ed. and introd.); Asian American Literature in the International Context: Readings on Fiction, Poetry, and Performance. Hamburg, Germany: Lit; 2002. 265 pp. (book article)
- "Rice Talk: Discoursing Asian American Literature." By: Lopez, Ferdinand M.; Unitas: A Quarterly for the Arts and Sciences, 2003 Mar; 76 (1): 76-97. (journal article)
- "American ExceptionalismExceptionalismExceptionalism is the perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is "exceptional" in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles...
and Multiculturalism: Myths and Realities." By: Madsen, Deborah L.. pp. 177–87 IN: Maeder, Beverly (ed. and introd.); Representing Realities: Essays on American Literature, Art and Culture. Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr; 2003. 228 pp. (book article) - "Artefact, Commodity, Fetish: The Aesthetic Turn in Chinese American Literary Study." By: Madsen, Deborah L.. pp. 185–97 IN: Wang, Jennie (ed. and introd.); Querying the Genealogy: Comparative and Transnational Studies in Chinese American Literature. Shanghai, China: Shanghai yi wen chu ban she; 2006. 557 pp. (book article)
- "MELUS Interview: Gish Jen." By: Matsukawa, Yuko; MELUS, 1993-1994 Winter; 18 (4): 111-20. (journal article)
- "Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land." By: Partridge, Jeffrey F. L.. pp. 215–32 IN: Parini, Jay (ed. and introd.); American Writers: Classics, Volume II. New York, NY: Scribner's; 2004. xiv, 336 pp. (book article)
- Crossroads and Mirrors in New World Literature, 1814-1997: Gertrudis Gómez de AvellanedaGertrudis Gómez de AvellanedaGertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga was a 19th century Cuban writer.-Life:Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga, widely known as la Avellaneda, was born in Santa María de Puerto Príncipe , Cuba...
, Charles Chesnutt, and Gish Jen By: Poehlmann, Bess Lyons; Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 2004 June; 64 (12): 4455. Brandeis U, 2004. (dissertation abstract) - "Affirmations: Speaking the Self into Being." By: Samarth, Manini; Parnassus: Poetry in Review, 1992; 17 (1): 88-101. (journal article)
- "Writing about the Things That Are Dangerous: A Conversation with Gish Jen." By: Satz, Martha; Southwest Review, 1993 Winter; 78 (1): 132-40. (journal article)
- "The Symbolic Triune of Gish Jen's Typical American." By: Schaefer, Judith; Notes on Contemporary Literature, 2003 Sept; 33 (4): 10-12. (journal article)
- "Gish Jen (Lillian Jen)." By: Simal, Begoña. pp. 142–54 IN: Madsen, Deborah L. (ed. and introd.); Asian American Writers. Detroit, MI: Gale; 2005. xxiv, 460 pp. (book article)
- "Gish Jen: 'The Book That Hormones Wrote.'" By: Smith, Wendy; Publishers Weekly, June 7, 1999; 246 (23): 59-58. (journal article)
- "Success Chinese American Style: Gish Jen's Typical American." By: TuSmith, Bonnie; Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, 1994 Fall; 11 (2): 21-26. (journal article)
- "'An Identity Switch': A Critique of Multiculturalism in Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land." By: Wang, Chih-ming. pp. 139–54 IN: Brada-Williams, Noelle (ed. and introd.); Chow, Karen (ed. and introd.); Crossing Oceans: Reconfiguring American Literary Studies in the Pacific Rim. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP; 2004. xiv, 200 pp. (book article)
- "'An Onstage Costume Change': Modernity and Immigrant Experience in Gish Jen's Typical American." By: Wang, Chih-ming; NTU Studies in Language and Literature, 2002 Dec; 11: 71-96. (journal article)
- "Writing on the Slash: Experience, Identification, and Subjectivity in Gish Jen's Novels." By: Wang, Chih-ming; Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities, 2001 Oct; 13: 103-17. (journal article)
- "But What in the World Is an Asian American? Culture, Class and Invented Traditions in Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land." By: Wong, Sau-Ling Cynthia; EurAmerica: A Journal of European and American Studies, 2002 Dec; 32 (4): 641-74. (journal article)
- "Academic Dissidentifications." By: Wu, Yung-Hsing; Profession, 2004; 107-17. (journal article)
- "Becoming Americans: Gish Jen's Typical American." By: Xiaojing, Zhou. pp. 151–63 IN: Payant, Katherine B. (ed. and introd.); Rose, Toby (ed. and epilogue); The Immigrant Experience in North American Literature: Carving Out a Niche. Westport, CT: Greenwood; 1999. xxvii, 190 pp. (book article)
- "Jen’s World and Town, a Female Bildungsroman Novel of Postmodern Humanism." By: Echols, Katherine E; Plaza: Dialogues in Language and Literature, 2011; Vol 1, No 1. (journal article)
See also
- Chinese American literatureChinese American literatureChinese American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of Chinese descent. The genre began in the 19th century and flowered in the 20th with such authors as Sui Sin Far, Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Amy Tan....
- List of Asian American writers