Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing'
Tom Cho explores notions of identity in his short fiction Look Who’s Morphing. Self-insertion and popular culture references have been fundamental in exploring the fluidity of identity within the texts. Using Cho’s own curatorial popular culture experiences, the collection examines in particular Chi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Western Australia
2014-12-01
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| Series: | Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2657405/Purvis-article.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818587223580213248 |
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| author | Emily Purvis |
| author_facet | Emily Purvis |
| author_sort | Emily Purvis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Tom Cho explores notions of identity in his short fiction Look Who’s Morphing. Self-insertion and popular culture references have been fundamental in exploring the fluidity of identity within the texts. Using Cho’s own curatorial popular culture experiences, the collection examines in particular Chinese-Australian cultural identity and sexuality. Cho has appropriated popular culture narratives in order to deconstruct pre-conceived notions of stereotype and essentialist theories. This has been done throughout the body of the Look Who’s Morphing collection in order to maintain accessibility of these complex themes for a wider audience. Cho’s self-insertion allows for these themes to be explored, and whilst his inversion of popular culture plot texts seeks to subvert their overall message, Cho succeeds in demonstrating that whilst popular culture may be utilised to better understand culture, its experiences are not universal. Cho’s self-insertion creates a paradigm in which the two conceptualised identity forms of Asian and Western may be integrated in order to subvert the limitations of diaspora and migrant autobiography. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T09:05:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f18b587c51ba45b8be15b0f86adcabbb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1833-3419 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T09:05:27Z |
| publishDate | 2014-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Western Australia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-f18b587c51ba45b8be15b0f86adcabbb2022-12-21T22:37:05ZengUniversity of Western AustraliaLimina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies1833-34192014-12-01202111Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing'Emily Purvis0The University of Western AustraliaTom Cho explores notions of identity in his short fiction Look Who’s Morphing. Self-insertion and popular culture references have been fundamental in exploring the fluidity of identity within the texts. Using Cho’s own curatorial popular culture experiences, the collection examines in particular Chinese-Australian cultural identity and sexuality. Cho has appropriated popular culture narratives in order to deconstruct pre-conceived notions of stereotype and essentialist theories. This has been done throughout the body of the Look Who’s Morphing collection in order to maintain accessibility of these complex themes for a wider audience. Cho’s self-insertion allows for these themes to be explored, and whilst his inversion of popular culture plot texts seeks to subvert their overall message, Cho succeeds in demonstrating that whilst popular culture may be utilised to better understand culture, its experiences are not universal. Cho’s self-insertion creates a paradigm in which the two conceptualised identity forms of Asian and Western may be integrated in order to subvert the limitations of diaspora and migrant autobiography.http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2657405/Purvis-article.pdftom cholook who's morphingmigrantautobiographychinese-australian cultural identitysexuality |
| spellingShingle | Emily Purvis Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing' Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies tom cho look who's morphing migrant autobiography chinese-australian cultural identity sexuality |
| title | Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing' |
| title_full | Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing' |
| title_fullStr | Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing' |
| title_full_unstemmed | Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing' |
| title_short | Self-Insertion and Identity in Tom Cho's 'Look Who's Morphing' |
| title_sort | self insertion and identity in tom cho s look who s morphing |
| topic | tom cho look who's morphing migrant autobiography chinese-australian cultural identity sexuality |
| url | http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/2657405/Purvis-article.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT emilypurvis selfinsertionandidentityintomchoslookwhosmorphing |