The motions of the oceans: Circulation, displacement, expansion, and Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart. Issue 2 (3rd April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yao, Steven
• Is Part Of: Atlantic studies. Volume 15:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: 183
• Page End: 197
• Publication Date: 2018-04-03
• Subjects: Pacific Ocean -- transpacific studies -- Atlantic studies -- commerce -- diaspora -- empire -- Carlos Bulosan -- America is in the heart -- Asian American -- ethnic -- picaresque; Globalization -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- History -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- In literature -- Periodicals; Cross-cultural studies -- Atlantic Ocean Region -- Periodicals; 909.0963
• DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2017.1377026
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-8810

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper identifies in Atlantic studies three fundamental "oceanic" motions and their attendant conditions of possibility that seem useful for further developing the notion of the transpacific as both a feature of and a theater for the rise of global modernity: circulation /commerce; displacement /diaspora; and expansion /empire. To demonstrate their utility, this paper shows how these dyads help bring into focus the deep transpacific currents informing the narrative substance and logic of Carlos Bulosan's renowned autobiographical narrative, America is in the Heart . In doing so, it puts forth the notion of the "ethnic picaresque" as a way to further develop a transpacific theorization of literary and cultural production by people of Asian descent in the United States and elsewhere that moves expressly beyond the conceptual boundaries of the nation.