Obasan (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Joy Kogawa
- First Published: 1981
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism, Domestic realism, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, 1970’s, Family or family life, Mothers, Parents and children, Racism, 1940’s, World War II, Oppression, Canada or Canadians, Asian Americans, Atomic bomb, Japan or Japanese people, Japanese Americans
- Locales: Alberta, Canada, Vancouver, Canada, Nagasaki, Japan
Obasan (“Aunt”) is Kogawa's first novel. Written after most of her books of poems, it contains passages of fine poetry. The fragmented narrative reveals partial memories that the narrator revisits and contemplates at various stages in her life. The reader, like the narrator, works at choosing the fragments with value and arranging them into a whole.
Naomi Nakane, like Kogawa, was born in Vancouver before World War II. She is a sansei, a third-generation Japanese born in Canada. Naomi and her brother Stephen live with their parents, who are music teachers, in a large,...
[The entire page is 1281 words long]
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