Online Book Discussion: Dr. Karen Thornber – Gender Justice and Contemporary Asian Literatures
Organizer: Dr. Paul J. D’Ambrosio
Discussants: Drs. Durba Mitra, Bruce Fulton and Hui Faye Xiao
April 23, 2025 8pm EDT
Virtual event held on Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83317177585#success
About the Book
This casebook investigates how diverse writers from across East, South, and Southeast Asia and their diasporas have engaged with the struggle for gender justice. Each chapter analyzes works of literature originally written in Bengali, Chinese, English, Indonesian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Marathi, Thai, and Vietnamese. Aimed at both specialists and nonspecialists, Gender Justice and Contemporary Asian Literatures addresses such subjects as gender imparity in male-dominated professions; the lives of migrant sex workers and caregivers; the fight against reproductive, family, non-partner, and intimate partner violence; and norms of shame and silence surrounding violence against women. Informed by the author’s deep knowledge of literature, history, culture, law, and social conditions, this book will be a resource for instructors and students in gender studies, women’s studies, ethnic studies, Asian studies, Asian American studies, Asian diaspora studies, comparative literature, and world literature.
About the Author
Karen Laura Thornber is Harry Tuchman Levin Professor in Literature and professor of East Asian languages and civilizations at Harvard University. A cultural historian and scholar of literature and media, she has published numerous articles and books, including Empire of Texts in Motion: Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese Transculturations of Japanese Literature (2009), Ecoambiguity: Environmental Crises and East Asian Literatures (2012), and Global Healing: Literature, Advocacy, Care (2020).
Posted by: Faye Xiao <hxiao@ku.edu>