Narrative Gaps, Hermeneutics, and Aesthetic Emotion in Asian American Literature

Despite the growing popularity of Asian American literature in academic circles and beyond, current literary theoretical models fall short of being adequately useful in describing and analyzing Asian American literary texts. This essay first examines potential problems related to the current literary theory about narrative gaps and hermeneutic codes and describes how Asian American writers attempt to bridge the gaps and manage the codes by providing extra-narrative supplements and/or narrative inserts. This essay also examines how the element of aesthetic or narrative emotion works differently in reading multi-cultural literature. The essay concludes by proposing a few guidelines on developing theoretical models that describe and explain the ways in which Asian American literary texts work. For examples, we need to accept the fact that multi-cultural literary texts are bound to be read differently by cultural insiders and outsiders, that sometimes misunderstanding or confusion is part of the reading process, and that readers are to understand the cultural background in order to fully appreciate the text’s density and its aesthetic value.