Troubled by the discipline’s historical relationship to white supremacy, classical scholars have begun to reexamine their fundamental assumptions about the relevance of ancient Greece and Rome to the modern world. After decades in which classical reception was relegated to the periphery of the discipline, a consensus has developed that the study of modern interactions with antiquity is inherently valuable. One of the newest branches of classical reception focuses on the cultural productions and political realities of Asian Americans. Contending that the Asian American authors discussed herein understand the ancient world as fundamentally unstable, Classical Reception in Asian American Literature interrogates this instability as manifested in fragmentation, violence, mythology, allusion, performance, and memory. 

The study explores the written works of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Ocean Vuong, Quan Barry, Chang-rae Lee, David Lau, Sally Wen Mao, Johanna Hedva, Hoa Nguyen, and Vi Khi Nao. Via their written works, Christopher Waldo explores the bond between Demeter and Persephone, Telemachus’ identity as a fatherless son, the relationship between diasporic authors and Sappho, reinventions of mythology surrounding the Trojan War, and more. In Classical Reception in Asian American Literature, the literary traditions of the East and West collide to illuminate the threads of connection between the ancient and modern worlds. 

Christopher Waldo is Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Washington, Seattle.