PALIMPSESTIC IDENTITY IN REBECCA F. KUANG’S “YELLOWFACE”
PALIMPSESTIC IDENTITY IN REBECCA F. KUANG`s “YELLOWFACE”

Summary/Abstract: It is the assumption of this study that Kuang’s novel, “Yellowface”, published in 2023 yields a myriad of identities, indeed palimpsestic ones, layers upon layers of selfhood, be it professional or ethnic or racial, that the protagonist of this novel appropriates only to then readily relinquish when conscience kicks in. It is not merely a story of reluctant plagiarism that Kuang looks at here, it is the very conundrum of identity in its contextual versatility that she investigates with gusto. It is indeed post -identity that comes to mind in an age when one does not necessarily have to appropriate someone else’s work, but, say, an Artificial Intelligence algorithm can do it for you, A.I. as (implicit) protagonist in literature (prose, mostly) now being quite the bellwether in recent fiction.

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