Entwined Heartstrings across Horizons: Investigating Asian American Romance in the Novel How to be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway in the Light of Corpus Linguistics

Abstract

This research article seeks to investigate the Asian American romance depicted in novel How to be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway by focusing on the characters of an Asian American woman Shoko and an American GI Charlie by applying corpus linguistic driven approach. The analysis reveals that the corpus linguistics technique helps to provide the certain results which are beneficial in refining and supporting in probing the intuitive observations on the emotional attachment and relationship of Shoko and Charlie in the post-world war II era. This approach to corpus study has conclusively revealed that Charlie is fascinated by the Japanese culture while the pervasiveness of recurring economic benefits and social stability along with the aspect of emotional attachment play a key role for Shoko to search for a husband outside her native land Japan and settle in America. The study also spotlights the dynamics of cross-cultural relationships and marriages along with the issues of adjustment for Asian immigrants in America in the aftermaths of WWII. Regardless of great prospect for the study of Asian American romantic relations, it is recommended that the understanding and knowledge of the text under discussion is significant in evaluating and interpreting the quantitative data by employing corpus technique in order to find out other aspects of Asian American literature.