Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Jamey Davidsmeyer Professor Mitali P. Wong from the Department of English and Foreign Language at Claflin University presented "Resolving Differences: The Fiction of South Asians in North America and the Caribbean" Wednesday afternoon in the Bone Student Center.

Thousands of writers migrated to the United States over the past 200 years and used various forms of literature to portray their hardships.

Mitali P. Wong spoke in the Bone Student Center Wednesday afternoon about South Asian literature as part of ISU's weekly Seminar Series.

"Dr. Wong is an English professor at Claflin University in South Carolina," T.Y. Wang, a professor of politics and government at ISU, said.

"She has received many teaching awards at her present university and at previous institutions she has taught at. She also has published numerous books, poems and literature," Wang added.

Although South Asian authors have published many different forms of literature, their most popular works in North America are novels and short stories.

"South Asian writing in America covers several genres, in which fiction is the earliest," Wong said.

"South Asian writers use their mastery of English prose as a symbol of freedom and linguistic discrimination in the New World," Wong added.

Wong said that the fiction genre gained the most popularity among Americans because some of the most talented South Asian writers used fiction as a vehicle to express their ideas. When American publications began implementing these South Asian fictional stories, popularity for the genre increased.

"From about 1915 to the present, American publishers and literary magazines, such as the New Yorker, have continued to publish fiction in character settings of South Asia," Wong said.

Many of the fictional novels and short stories focused on the authors' experiences with immigration to the United States during the past two centuries.

"The history of South Asian fiction in America is constantly tied to the migration to America," Wong said. "Among the most significant numbers of South Asians migrating to America included the Chinese, Japanese, Pilipino and Korean," Wong added.

Writers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan also contributed significant works to South Asian American literature.The numerous countries may lead some to believe that South Asian literature is vastly different, but Wong suggested that this is not necessarily true.

"South Asians may be very different from each other, but the history and culture is quite common within their countries," Wong said.

"Regardless, I still try to use the term South Asian to include numerous labels," Wong added.

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