Abstract This chapter uses the idea of sympathy as an analytical frame to rethink the literary historiography of the Asian American novel. The genre’s diverse characteristics and functions can be illuminated by three interrelated uses of the term: to make sympathetic, by producing recognizably Asian American subjects capable of eliciting compassion; to be in sympathy, by exploring the possibilities of consonance reflected in such forms as the anthology and the collectively voiced text; and to sympathize, by exploring various processes by which one makes up or compounds something—in this case, the Asian American novel—from corresponding parts, a process rendered most visibly through the literature’s relationship to generic experimentation and its participation in postmodern aesthetic practices. As an alternative to understanding the Asian American novel in historical or developmental terms, this approach highlights the internal contradictions and disruptions that have played a crucial role in the evolution of the genre.
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