The Politics of the Visible in Asian North American Narratives by Eleanor Ty

reconciled with the larger context—the vast energies of Pound’s poetic outreach to other cultures and times. Ruth A. Grogan York University Ty, Eleanor. The Politics o fthe Visible in Asian North American Narra tes. Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 2004. 227 + xv pp. $24.95' (paper); $45:00 (cloth). In this learned and intriguing book, clearly the fruit of broad-ranging read­ ing and deep reflection, Eleanor Ty sets herself the task of throwing some new light on the complex of social conditions and cultural assumptions about the “birthmarks”—“the visible hieroglyphs”—of Asian Americans and Asian Canadians. “We have lived in and been part of North America for centuries, but have remained in the shadows,” says the author in the beginning of her work. “We have been invisible, yet we have been branded as visible’” (4). Rather than an introduction to Asian North American nar­ ratives in general, this closely argued study seeks to examine the politics of the visible with cogent references to nine well-selected Asian American/ Canadian texts in various forms ranging from autobiography, fiction to film. Drawing upon recent discussions of ethnic studies, post-colonial theory, and women studies, Ty explores the entangled historical reasons for invisibility as well as the contemporary politics ofvisibility, and provides comparative analyses of different ideological and cultural imaginaries not only between the East and the West but also among different ethnic sub­ groups within Asian America/Canada. Her painstaking research shows how Asian North Americans negotiate the paradoxical relationship between the visibility oftheir physical features and their invisibility in mainstream public and cultural spheres. Ty’ s vast expertise in the subject is apparent through­ out the book, and her brilliant capacity to present intricate arguments in plain language makes her work feel more like a dialogue with the reader than a studious exposition. Simple in its style yet profound in its approach, this impressive book, which contains both source-based accounts and indepth theoretical elaborations, makes a substantial contribution to our understanding and appreciation of Asian North American narratives in a way that demands the attention of scholars and students alike. After briefmusings on her own experience as a “visible”Asian Canadian Professor of English, Ty embarks upon an extended account of the racial politics in Canada and the United States and an informative overview of Book Reviews | 231 the recent debates on the issue with references to scores of scholars. “In my use ofthe term,”writes Ty, “the ‘politics of the visible’deals with the effects of being legally, socially, and culturally marked as visible,’ and, paradoxi­ cally, with the experience ofbeing invisible in dominant culture and history” (11-12). In pursuing the argument, she is at pains to make a few points clear in her comparative study of Asian immigrants in American and Canadian histories. “The United States and Canada,” Ty notes, “mirrored each other in the way their governments and communities both made use of and yet discriminated against Asians in this period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” (14). The situation can be compared to what Ralph Ellison portrays in Invisible Man, as the effects of invisibility result from the function, or rather malfunction, of people’s “inner eyes”that only see what they have been ideologically accustomed to perceiving. Although the con­ temporary racial politics has become much more complicated than before, “the construction of categories and ordering of things,” as Ty shows in the book, “is still predominantly appearance or the scopic drive” (8), and it will take many years to undo the Orientalist images of Asian Americans and Asian Canadians. The politics of the (in)visible, therefore, is closely related to how things are represented in history and has strong impact upon one’s subjectivity. Tydoes an admirable job of detailing and comparing historical and ideological reasons for invisibility, and the historical framework that she creates in the introductory chapter provides a solid ground for her subsequent textual interpretations. The three chapters in Part 1are developed around the topic of “visuality , representation and the gaze.” The chapter on Denise Chong’s The Concubine’ s Children is copiously researched and well written. Ty reveals her strength and passion when offering...

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