The Reflections of Society in Literature: Contemporary Currents

Book excerpt: “Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self, in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned.” James Arthur Baldwin Cross cultural encounter between first and second generation Asian-American woman and their dilemma of cultural choice between assimilation into main body or safeguarding self culture as an outsider immigrant have always lured a large numbers of Asian-American writers. Although such literary work is still face the debate of whether it is a part of American literature or of outsiders. Maxine Hong Kingston a well known Chinese-American author who has written about the experiences of the Chinese immigrants living in America has shielded her American inheritance as a writer like, “Actually I think that my books are much more American than they are Chinese. I felt that I was building, creating myself and these people as American people… Even though they have strange Chinese memories, they are American people. Also, I am creating part of American literature, and I was aware of doing that, of adding to American literature.” (Paula Rabinowitz, 1987)