Ugly Feelings in Philip Kan Gotanda’s The Wash

Abstract

As a contemporary Japanese American playwright, Philip Kan Gotanda is noted for his realistic family dramas. The Wash, as his pivotal work, explores the perpetual impacts of racial discrimination and internment camp experience on Japanese immigrants. Although The Wash (1987) has been the object of intense critical study, there are more focus on identity formation, characterization and thematic concerns. This paper uses Sianne Ngai’s theory in her perspicacious book Ugly Feelings in which Ngai systematically proposes seven ugly feelings, namely, animatedness, envy, irritation, anxiety, stuplime, paranoia, and disgust to interpret predicaments implied in the affect signs. By analyzing the reasons and aftermath of Nobu’s three ugly feelings, paranoia, stuplime, and disgust, the author of this paper argues that Nobu is both the victim and victimizer of racial discrimination. As a victim, the protagonist’s negativity is originated from Camp trauma, racism, and traditional Japanese ideology. As a victimizer, his negative feelings inflict in her kinsfolk and intergroup. By writing the collapse of a small family, Gotanda creates a miniature while hints continuous and detrimental influences of systemic racism and interminority racism.