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Karen Tei Yamashita's I Hotel is a powerful fictional retelling of the 1960s-1970s Asian American movement in the San Francisco Bay Area. Recipient of the American Book Award and the Janet Heidinger Kafka Award, Yamashita is author of five other books, including Through the Arc of the Rainforest and Tropic of Orange.11 Hotel, however, may be Yamashita's most innovative work to date. With exceptional insight, humor, and vivid story-telling, she explores the complexities of social change during one of America's most politically radical and tumultuous decades. I Hotel was a finalist for a 2010 National Book Award and has received a number of honors, including a California Book Award, an American Book Award (Yamashita's second), and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature.
This novel is an exuberant reflection of the Asian American social change movement, and part of the thrill of reading I Hotel is Yamashita's visually arresting experiments with narration. The novel includes comics, illustrations, analect-inspired narrative, theater script, a film screenplay, and dance choreography alongside more conventional story-telling structures such as the short story. Inspired by the range of visual and literary discourses that circulated during this movement, Yamashita has woven them into the structure and content of I Hotel. As a result, I Hotel leaves readers with the vivid impression that it has captured the spirit of the time.2 Yet the very same factors that make I Hotel a rich and provocative read can also make the book seem challenging. Its length at 605 pages, the mixed media, and the historical references may be intimidating at first glance. The aim of this essay is to offer teachers and general readers a base for beginning the novel. For teachers, this article may be easily adapted for use in their syllabus.
This essay is divided into two parts. Part I offers historical background and context and Part II offers eight thematic prompts for classroom discussion; each of these prompts are based on an interview with Yamashita. The article ends with suggestions for additional teaching aids and readings. This essay may be read as a single article, but it has been organized to allow instructors to skim and excerpt sections of interest for use as classroom reading supplements. Part I covers three topics:
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