Includes bibliographical references and index.

Representing the inscrutable memory of "comfort women" in Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life (1999) -- Scrutability for readerly recognition in Monique Truong's The Book of Salt (2003) -- Visualizing Asian American inscrutability in Adrian Tomine's graphic novel, Shortcomings (2007) -- Contextualizing the affect, ethics, and politics of female silence in Hisaye Yamamoto's short stories, "Seventeen Syllables" (1949) and "Wilshire Bus" (1950) -- Memorializing the inscrutable history of others: Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1975) and GB Tran's Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey (2010)

"This book examines how Asian American authors since 1945 have deployed the stereotype of Asian American inscrutability in order to re-examine and debunk the stereotype in various ways. By paying special attention to what narrative theorists have regarded as one of the most extraordinary aspects of fiction-its ability to give (or else deny) readers a remarkably detailed knowledge of the inner lives of their characters-this book explores deeply and systematically the specific ways Asian American narratives attribute inscrutable minds to Asian American characters, situating them at various points along a spectrum stretching between alterity and empathy. Ultimately, the book reveals the link between narrative form and larger cultural issues associated with the representation of Asian American minds, and how a nuanced investigation of narrative form can yield insights into the sociocultural embeddedness of Asian American literature under the case studies-insights that would not be available if such formal questions were by passed"--

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