Japanese American experience in the works of Nisei authors

Abstract

Pro svou diplomovou pnici jsem si zvolila tema, ktere nenf v kontextu americke literatury zatfm prflis zmime, a ktere si ryka specificke skupiny Americanu, jejich zkusenosti v prubehu 20. stoletf a zobrazenf teto zkusenosti v litenimfch dflech peti vybranych autoru. Jedna se 0 Japanoamericany, tedy jakjaponske pfistehovalce, takjejich potomky, kteff se jiz narodili ve Spojenych s,tatech. Literatura americkych autoru japonskeho puvodu je zvlastnf pnive tfm, ze ve velke mfre zachycuje nejen prozitky a pocity noveho pristehovalce, ale predevsfm tragickou udalost evakuace a nasledneho nuceneho presunu vsech obcanu japonskeho puvodu zijfcfch na zapadnfm pobrdf USA do intemacnfch taboru ve vnitrozemf, kteni zasahla bez vyjimky vsechny tyto lidi v letech 1942-1944. Protoze v pffpade cetby a studia literatury Japanoamericanuje nutne znat i historicke okolnosti, ktere jsou reflektovany v jejich dflech, v prvnf a druM kapitole diplomove prace uvadfm nejdulezitejsf kultumf a historicke realie. Tfetf kapitola se venuje teorii literatury vztahujfcf se na literatury etnickych minorit. Zde jsou zmfneny nektere problemy a spome otazky tykajfcf se prijfmanf a interpretace literatury vytvorene zastupci kultumfch nebo etnickych mensin. Krome nejdulezitejsfch otazek, vznesenych samotnymi autory a kritiky z rad Americanu...

Presenting this diploma thesis as a general overview of one group of writers, perhaps only a few words would suffice for the explication of my choice. Putting aside any emotional or personal involvement of mine in this topic, which stems from my ongoing interest in Japanese culture and the study of this language, I regard Japanese Americans and the literature they produced as unique in several respects. Considering their often contradictory reception and the turbulent historical shifts they were subjected to, one has to view this group as a generation of paradoxes. Being born in America, yet all their lives contending with the label of "exotic" or "oriental," struggling to conform, but only to discover that this effort (if it brought them closer to their peers) distanced them from their immigrant parents, writing literature in a language that was usually not their original mother tongue. These are attributes and dilemmas that would pertain probably to any recent group of immigrants to the United States. But what singles out the Japanese American experience among the countless other immigrant histories, is their collective experience in the years 1942-1944, when the nation they long aspired to be a part of suddenly crushed these hopes in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack by considering them an enemy and...