Professor Nguyen, who has just begun her first semester as a Professor of English Literature at Wesleyan, recently completed research on the post-Katrina Vietnamese-American community in New Orleans. She has taught at UC Berkeley and Tulane on topics ranging from American literature to Asian hordes. She enjoys cottage cheese and collecting old things.
The Argus: Tell me about your two classes: “American Modernisms: Time, Space and Race,” and “Vietnam and the American Imagination.”
Professor Marguerite Nguyen: The aim of American Modernisms is to question American Modernism; to examine texts that put forth manifestos about what American modern literature should look like, explore the overlaps of race and gender, and the representation of time and space. Vietnam and the American Imagination is essentially that; exploring how there are certain themes, like the Vietnam War, that dominate literature, although there is actually a very lively conversation about the Vietnamese in the ’20s and ’30s.
A: Why do you think these issues are important?
MN: Whether we are aware of it or not, our lives are overlapped in interesting ways. It challenges the way we think about ourselves and communities, and what direction communities and nations should go. It matters not only on a cultural level, but also sharpens our critical thinking on social and political levels as well.
A: Both of your classes have the underlying theme of ethnicity playing a role in shaping American literature. How and when did these interests arise?
MN: I was a Mellon post-doc for two years. I worked for English departments in different universities and colleges, teaching courses on race and identity and Asian-American studies, including the Vietnam diaspora in America. I went to New Orleans mainly to focus on the Vietnamese community public narrative, both pre- and post-Hurricane Katrina. I was fascinated by the community, which had been relatively invisible before the hurricane. It had suddenly burst onto the cultural horizon, in terms of public awareness.
A: How did you end up in New Orleans?
MN: It was really coincidental. I was in grad school, the job market was terrible, and I ended up doing some translation work for a director who was making a documentary, A Village Called Versailles. The documentary was about the Vietnamese community in New Orleans, and it was eventually nominated for an Emmy Award.
A: You focus specifically on Vietnamese-Americans, but did you come across any insights on the general Asian-American population in New Orleans during your research?
MN: Generally, the one example of Vietnamese-Americans fed into the archive about all Asian-Americans. The project led to a long history of Asian-American culture in general, and what that says about our nation more broadly. I think of it as a metric by which to scale the nation, how to relate local populations to those of regions, and those of state to those of national.
A: How were the relations between the Vietnamese and other minority groups?
MN: I did sense some antagonism and tension, although there have been periods of collaboration and cooperation as well. Harry Lee, a Chinese-American, became the sheriff of Jefferson Parish in the late 70s, and he was really an unexpected self-proclaimed Asian cowboy, well-loved yet also controversial, especially during the hurricane. He had sent troops to the Parish border with rifles to supposedly prevent violence, although his troops racially profiled African-Americans. On the other hand, during the reconstruction post-Katrina, New Orleans East, which was where both racial groups reside, was essentially axed out, and the groups came together to protest.
A: The media fully covered the damage of Hurricane Katrina, but do you think there is any general public awareness of the Vietnamese community in New Orleans?
MN: The community has been featured. For instance, Anderson Cooper did a story. However, on a national level, people probably don’t know. In general, the Asian-American community does not officially fit into the New Orleans culture; during Mardi Gras, there is no Asian-American krewe. However, there are still many Asian-American jazz artists and cross-racial organizations. There will always be ups and downs.