레너드 장의 『식료품점』에 나타난 한국계 미국인의 인종화와 인종적 위치

Abstract

This paper explores the process of racialization, and the racial position, of Korean Americans revealed through the Korean-Black conflict in Leonard Chang’s The Fruit ‘N Food. Racial discourses such as ‘model minority myth,’ ‘yellow peril,’ and ‘middleman minority theory’ capture the cultural and ethnic characteristics of Asian Americans while shaping them into stereotypical racial images. Drawing on these racial discourses, this paper examines how the 1st generation characters in the novel are formed as a race group and how 2nd generation character Tom confronts the racialization process and negotiates over his Korean American identity. By examining the Korean-Black conflict within the racism and racial hierarchy of American society, this paper investigates the racial position of Korean (Asian) Americans which forms a racial triangulation between Blacks and Whites and visualizes Whiteness and White power which has been invisible throughout the novel.