An Immigrant Novel Revisited: Jean Kwok’s Girl in Translation

The article explores the genre of immigrant narrative, comparing two early-twentieth century novels written by the Jewish-American writers Mary Antin and Anzia Yezierska with a contemporary novel penned by the Chinese-American author Jean Kwok. Taking adaptation theory (Sanders 2006 and Hutcheon 2006) as a starting point, I examine how Kwok’s novel adapts, revises, and reimagines a familiar pattern across time and cultures in order to make it representative of Chinese Americans. The analysis draws attention to experiences of Chinese immigrant women, their class membership and socio-economic status.