Category: the land south of the clouds

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Deconstructing Whiteness in “Incognegro”

Every semester, I am amazed at the connective tissue that runs through the texts I place on the syllabus and the themes that arise. No matter the class, I construct my courses around themes, all teachers do. However, when a class ends poignantly on a recurring theme, I find it a really serendipitous occasion. This semester, in my Ethnic American Literature course, we explored … Read More Deconstructing Whiteness in “Incognegro”

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Identity in Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced”

In the last post, I talked some more about about Isabel Wilkerson’s statement from Caste when she says, “None of us are ourselves.” I looked at that statement in relation to Long Vahn in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s The Land South of the Clouds. Today, I want to look at Wilkerson’s statement and my own assertion that we can never know our “true” selves in … Read More Identity in Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced”

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Identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s “The Land South of the Clouds”: Part III

Over the last couple of posts, I have written about issues of identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s The Land South of the Clouds. Today, I want to conclude the discussion that I started last post and look at the rest of “Beautiful,” the chapter where Long Vanh details his relationships with women, focusing on the white woman Melanie first then his relationship with his … Read More Identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s “The Land South of the Clouds”: Part III

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Identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s “The Land South of the Clouds”: Part II

In the last post, I started writing about the ways that Long Vanh navigates the perceptions that others place upon him as he searches for his own identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s The Land South of the Clouds. Today, I want to continue that discussion by looking at “Beautiful,” a chapter in the novel where Long Vanh talks about his relationships with white women, … Read More Identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s “The Land South of the Clouds”: Part II

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Identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s “The Land South of the Clouds”: Part I

In the last post, I discussed the ways that Cristina García explores identity in her novel Monkey Hunting, specifically through the characters of Chen Pan, Chen Fang, and Domingo. Today, I want to expand that conversation by looking at a few scenes in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s The Land South of the Clouds, a novel that, like Monkey Hunting, examines the ways that we construct … Read More Identity in Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith’s “The Land South of the Clouds”: Part I