Gay, Marie-Agnès
« The Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian » : Edith Maude Eaton/Sui Sin Far, double héritage ou double dépossession?
- 2014.
18
Widely recognized today as the foremother of Chinese American letters, Sui Sin Far testifies in her writings to the irreducible tensions arising from her own bi-racial legacy, and to her complex positioning within the dominant Eurocentric tradition of American literature. Although she saw herself as a “connecting link [between] Occidentals and Orientals,” her texts call into question this optimistic sense of a hyphenated identity. In contrast to the assertive verticality that is associated with the notion of heritage, Edith Maude Eaton/Sui Sin Far’s autobiographical and fictional works define a space of wavering in-betweenness whereby double inheritance ultimately proves to be double dispossession.