ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how autobiography and fiction intersect in the production of texts that blur genres and offer powerful ethnographic insights for the anthropologist of migration who is (1) engaged as a reader of what immigrants themselves write and (2) interested in addressing narrative as a mechanism for understanding the lived and embodied experience of migration, and especially the stories of intimacy, resilience, survival, and the forging of bicultural or hybrid identities. The chapter focuses on debut novels which often tend to be the most autobiographical as new authors draw on their own memories and experiences to represent a reality with which they are all too familiar. As narratives, these debut novels communicate powerfully and access emotional worlds that may be overlooked in other discussions of the immigrant experience. The chapter includes discussion of the debut novels of Chinese-American writer Jean Kwok, Cuban-American writer Oscar Hijuelos, and Haitian-American writer Ibi Zoboi.
