This study examines the issues of nation, transnation and transnationalism in the US immigrant novels. Also, emphasizing the related meaning and function of "US," and "immigration," this study points out that US immigrant novels present US nationalism ...
This study examines the issues of nation, transnation and transnationalism in the US immigrant novels. Also, emphasizing the related meaning and function of "US," and "immigration," this study points out that US immigrant novels present US nationalism or transnationalism, not just immigrants' assimilation or adaptation in the US. Therefore, this study deals with US writers who immigrated from various countries (Philippines, Caribbean countries, India, Japan, Korea, and China) whose people experience US transnationalism, and this study focuses on how they express American transnationalism and their transnational senses in their novels. The results of this study are the following. First, the writing of US immigrants considers not only the discrimination and difficulties that US immigrants experience but also the situations of their mother countries which are exploited by the US. Those novels represent strong political and economic influences and transnational tourism as US transnational intervention. Second, the US immigrants in those novels have desires for the US because they have already undergone transnational America in their mother countries. Their fantasies and dreams for the US born in their mother countries give a hard time to the US immigrants who have to fight against discrimination and alienation in the US after immigration. Third, the US immigrants in those novels try to overcome their situation as minority by making unique transnational consciousness and space which are free from national restriction. These consciousness and spatializing are seen transnational in that they are related to their mother countries. In a violent and discriminative country such as the US, these transnational consciousness and transnational spatializing are survival strategies for the US immigrant subjects who cannot belong to the US completely. Fourth, the plot and characterization where the traditional spirit and culture of homelands functioned as primal spiritual source demonstrates transnationality. Fifth, the development and exploitation of resources by trans-and multi-national powers are reflected in individuals' everyday life. Sixth, transnational adoption across the borders is related to the aspiration for the US by people who have already experienced the US as a supernation in their home countries. Finally, the fact that US immigrant writers keep writing about their homelands shows transnationaliy. Through these writings, these immigrant writers bring the countries which the US had driven out of its national memory back to consciousness.