Double Agency: Acts of Impersonation in Asian A. Chen<|

Double AgencyActs of Impersonation in Asian American Literature and Culture\nAuthor(s): Tina Chen\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Stanford University Press, United States\nImprint: Stanford University Press\nISBN-13: 9780804751865, 978-0804751865\nSynopsis\nIn Double Agency, Tina Chen proposes impersonation as a paradigm for teasing out the performative dimensions of Asian American literature and culture. Asian American acts of impersonation, she argues, foreground the limits of subjectivity even as they insist on the undeniable importance of subjecthood. \n\n By decoupling imposture from impersonation, Chen shows how Asian American performances have often been misinterpreted, read as acts of betrayal rather than multiple allegiance. A central paradox informing the bookimpersonation as a performance of divided allegiance that simultaneously pays homage to and challenges authenticity and authoritythus becomes a site for reconsidering the implications of Asian Americans as double agents.