Beyond Victimhood: Sentimentalism in Contemporary Immigrations Novels

Author: Faiqa Ali

Field of Study: Social Sciences

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Will Glovinsky

Easel: 17

Timeslot: Midday

Abstract: Immigrants have gone from being underrepresented to misrepresented within literature, with many contemporary US novels perpetuating narratives that either victimize or vilify immigrants. Taking inspiration from James Baldwin’s critique of “the wet eyes of the sentimentalist” author, this research turns to the contemporary immigration novels American Dirt and Esperanza Rising to assess the ways in which immigrant stories are depicted and to analyze the ways that this reductive representation can result in many harmful, real world, implications. Counterintuitively, one of the largest consequences of such sentimental literature is a lack of empathy for American immigrants. Painting immigrants in a manner that reduces them to their struggle and strips them of their human complexity significantly hinders an audience’s ability to relate to and empathize with their circumstances. Such narratives may result in temporary pity and the reinforcement of harmful, inferiorizing stereotypes rather than invoking sincere, productive empathy.