Surveying Notions of Queer Asian American Community Through Literature: 1972–1998

The history of queer Asian America has, to date, largely been studied as a history of organizations. This has lent a particular tilt to both the preservation and the study of queer Asian America: the activism of the late 20th century has been archivally and academically preserved, while records of everyday queer Asian American experiences -- of the ways individuals discovered their identities, formed communities, found loves, and filled their days -- have been more rarely preserved and written of. This thesis seeks to fill that gap by analyzing the history of queer Asian American literature. Specifically, the thesis offers a broad survey of queer Asian American writing from the 1970s through the 90s. It then uses methods of literary and historical analysis to shed light on how individuals have grappled with the question of what it means to be queer and Asian American. Ultimately, the thesis turns to the queer Asian American community and asks, "Who are 'we'?"