Dissonant echoes: Kitamura’s personal awakening amidst Political Shadows in Philip Kan Gotanda’s Day Standing on Its Head
Keywords:
Asian American movement; model minority; psychoanalysis; alienation; dis/abilityAbstract
The present paper aims to explore Philip Kan Gotanda’s hero Kitamura’s, in Day Standing on Its Head (1994), inclination to evoke the Asian American movement of the 1960s by composing a paper on it, which problematizes his identity. He straddles between ethnic and mainstream cultures. His self has been splintered into two halves—Id and Ego. Kitamura’s ego is constructed by the core American culture, where he holds social prestige as a law professor, and he seeks to retain it by adhering to the symbolic order. On the other hand, the lack he faces is the absence of the student movement in which he was a participant. This leads him to return to his unconscious state or Id, where he wants to be part of it and also tries to repress it while negotiating with mainstream American culture. However, an allegation by Sam from his own Asian American community, regarding Kitamura’s adoption of a middle-class American persona, makes him enervated, distanced from his life, and yields a paranoid state. The present paper adhering to psychoanalytic theory aims to highlight the internal struggle Kitamura, the protagonist of the play, confronts on a daily basis, demonstrates how the public sphere encroaches upon his private space, and thus debilitates his personality. Nevertheless, the play ends with a regaining of his ability, entailing a bit of optimism.
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