It’s the last day of August, so here is a list of the articles and books I’ve read over the past three months. Mostly, anyway – it doesn’t count the novel I wrote that I read twice (editing) or the two short stories of mine I also read for editing purposes. I’ve organized them by place, since I was specifically researching certain countries. Beyond that, there are a few themes you might note from the titles: sexuality, especially women’s sexuality; modernity and the supernatural; and place and modernity. Looks like a lot of stuff about sexuality, though. Huh.
I feel a little bad about not reading more fiction. To be fair, the one novel I got through was 900 pages long (and I’d been reading it since winter – this only represents the last 500 pages or so). Also my Vietnamese class took over my life.
It was a lot of fun putting this together. It gave me a sense of progress and also helped me to keep my thoughts organized. Maybe I’ll do another one for the autumn.
I haven’t included the DOIs for most of the papers, assuming that you can find the journals without too much trouble. If you are having difficulties finding the things cited, drop a comment (or email) and I’ll help you out. I also haven’t included very many comments (and certainly not scholarly comments) because my notes tend to be rambling and, to a certain extent, incoherent. But if you want to discuss a certain paper, you can leave a comment.
Non-place specific
Oakes, Timothy. “Place and the Paradox of Modernity.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87.3 (Sept. 1997): 509-531. Retrieved August 2010 from the web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2564066>.
- What is it Gertrude Stein wrote, “…it was as if a bell rang within me”? I really enjoyed this paper.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. “Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 81.4 (1991). 684-696.
Cambodia
Sotheary, Mey Son. “My Sister.” Virtual Lotus: Modern Fiction of Southeast Asia. Trans. Tomoko Okada, Vuth Reth, and Teri Shaffer Yamada. Ed. Teri Shaffer Yamada. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. 45-56.
- Better in Khmai, or so I am told by those who read the language. Takes an unusually tolerant stance for the region.
China
Sinn, Elizabeth. “Women at Work: Chinese Brothel Keepers in Nineteenth-Century Hong Kong.” Journal of Women’s History 19.3 (2007): 87-111. DOI: 10.1353/jowh.2007.0062.
- This was a really fun paper. I totally found it by accident, too — I was searching for papers on family business for my job.
Thailand
Mills, Mary Beth. “Attack of the Widow Ghosts: Gender, Death, and Modernity in Northeast Thailand.” Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia. Aihwa Ong and Michael G. Peletz, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. 244-273.
- This was a great story. My future cousin-in-law (is that a recognized kinship term?) thought this would make a great one-act play. If I ever figure out how to write plays, I’m going to write it.
Muecke, Marjorie. Female sexuality in Thai discourses about Maechii (“lay nuns”). Culture, Health and Sexuality. 6.3 (May-June 2004): 221-238.
Thaweesit, Suchada. “The Fluidity of Thai Women’s Gendered and Sexual Subjectiveness.” Culture, Health & Sexuality. 6.3 (May-June 2004): 205-219.
Watarachanakool, Pornvipa. “Science, Technology and the Supernatural in Contemporary Thai Novels.” Manusya: Journal of Humanities. 9.1 (March 2006): 38-51.
Vietnam
Duong, Thu Huong. “The Story of an Actress.” Virtual Lotus: Modern Fiction of Southeast Asia. Trans. Bac Hoai Tran and Courtney Norris. Ed. Teri Shaffer Yamada. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. 298-320.
Khai, Hung. “Anh Phải Sống.” Anh Phải Sống. Hà Nội: Đời nay, 1934. n.p.
- Not the greatest story, but not too hard for beginning Vietnamese readers. (By “beginning,” I really mean “advanced students who are beginning to read stories and novels in Vietnamese, I guess.)
Khai, Hung. “You Must Live.” Virtual Lotus: Modern Fiction of Southeast Asia. Trans.Bac Hoai Tran and Courtney Norris. Ed. Teri Shaffer Yamada. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. 278-283.
Khai, Hung. “You Must Live.” Trans. Truc Huy. Saigon Online. Retrieved 25 August 2010. <http://www.saigonline.com/truc_huy/khaihung.htm>
- Not the greatest translation. But then again, I wasn’t a huge fan of the story.
Nguyen, The Anh. “The Vietnamization of the Cham Deity Po Nagar.” Essays into Vietnamese Pasts. Eds. K. W. Taylor and John K. Whitmore. Ithaca, N.Y. : Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1995. 42-50.
Quach, Trang. “Femininity and sexual agency among young unmarried women in Hanoi.” Culture, Health, and Sexuality. 10(Suppliment, June 2008): S151-S161.
Thu-Huong, Nguyen-Vo. “History Interrupted: Life after Material Death in South Vietnamese and Diasporic Works of Fiction.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 3.1 (2008): 1-35.
US/England
Anderson, Jourdan. “Letter from Jourdan Anderson to His Former Master.” Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery. Leon F. Litwack, ed. New York: Knopf, 1979. Retrieved from the web 31 August 2010. <http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/pdocs/anderson_letter.pdf>
Stephenson, Neil. Quicksilver. New York: William Morrow, 2003.
For those who have made it this far, here’s a fun song for the end of summer. The video is quite avant garde, or less politely, it looks like a bunch of hipsters threw up on the set. But the song is great: “Dog Days are Gone” by Florence and the Machine.