Abstract:

Affect studies have long been saturated with scholarship investigating the fluidity of emotions, though a larger turn in the field now prioritizes the felt experiences of marginalized peoples. Sianne Ngai’s work is one part of this turn that seeks to unpack the effects of oppressive systemic forces on Black, Brown, and queer bodies. Drawing from Ngai’s writing, this thesis intervenes as an examination of affect in the Southeast Asian diaspora, specifically attuned to how migration and assimilation shapes the identities and relationships of individuals in Filipino, Vietnamese, and Cambodian communities across the globe.

My project argues that analyzing the Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee through an affective lens illuminates the methods of survival enacted in order to negotiate their citizenship in new places of residence. In tandem, my thesis reveals how the forces of white hegemony and assimilation violently threaten the Southeast Asian's citizenship and belonging in the West.

Organized into three chapters built upon affects of guilt, gratitude, and nervousness, my thesis explores three short story collections to trace how affect functions within the Southeast Asian.

I argue that an attunement to affect in literary narratives augments our understanding around cultural values, identity formation, and the institution of family. In my investigation of these texts, I call attention to the short story collection as a form especially equipped to convey diasporic narratives due to the form’s allowances for a multiplicity of voices that emphasize community. I posit that labor and a deeply embedded obligation to family and community are central to the affective atmospheres of the diasporic Filipino, Vietnamese, and Cambodian communities. A significant aim of this thesis is to highlight the interconnected struggles, life, and love of the Southeast Asian diaspora.

AERIN FORTES