This honors thesis is a creative and analytical project consisting of an original two act play and accompanying essay concerned with this history of Asian American literature. The first component of this project is an original play entitled Pearl Dust from a Gun. This play focuses on the Wu Family. The first act is a play-within-a-play about their lives during the Summer of 1975 when the family's father becomes involved with the Flying Dragons gang. The Second Act then focuses on Margaret (who wrote the play featured in the first act) as she begins to receive critical success with her work, to the disapproval of her estranged father, Phillip. The analytical component of this thesis seeks to further unpack the ways in which the play utilizes self-reflexivity in the theatrical form and the crime fiction genres. This paper introduces the concept of the meta-audience - a tool utilized by playwrights to bring attention to the nature of the white gaze in theatrical spaces. Then this concept of how the play engages the white gaze is expanded into an analysis of American crime fiction; particularly works which have canonized orientalist tropes and traditions in the genre. Ultimately, this project is an exercise in tracing the lineages of an Asian American family and literary tradition, with the goal of producing a creative, self-reflexive work.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24056