'The task is hers': Asian American Women, Literature and Reproduction

Tropes and narratives of Asian American female reproduction have circulated since the turn of the 20th century U.S., variously, as eugenics and Malthusian nightmare of being overly reproductive; as exemplary mothers and gendered model minority; and as “bad” and, at times, deadly mothers through narratives of wayward reproduction such as in adoption narratives and female infanticide.

This project examines how discourses of Asian American women’s reproduction was formed and continues to be reimagined through literature and culture in the 20th century that mediate issues of racial and national identity and belonging.