Expertise

20th and 21st Century U.S. Fiction, Asian American literature, Ethnic Minority Literature, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Art, Critical Race Theory and Studies

Biography

Sue-Im Lee received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has published on: topics of realism and theories of community in contemporary U. S. Fiction, experimental literature,  and aesthetics in Asian American literature; on writers such as Toni Morrison, Richard Powers, Lynne Tillman, Lydia Davis, Karen Tei Yamashita, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Carlos Bulosan. Currently she is at work on a book called Racial Order of Art: Aesthetics, Minority Disenfranchisement, and Asian American Literature. 

Selected Publications

• A Body of Individuals: The Paradox of Community in Contemporary Fiction. The Ohio State University Press (March 2009)
• Literary Gestures: The Aesthetic in Asian American Writing. Eds. Sue-Im Lee, Rocio Davis. Philadelphia: Temple University Press (October 2005)       
• "Minority Formalism, Aesthetic Concepts, and Chuang Hua’s Crossings." Modern Fiction Studies (forthcoming Winter 2021: Volume 67.4)
• “Can You Tell by Looking? A Postvisible Definition of Asian American Literature.” American Literature (September 2020: Volume 92.3; 543-569)
• “Doing Literary Criticism, Making Value Judgments: What Might Be Called ‘Good Writing” Criticism After Critique: Aesthetics, Literature, and the Political. Ed. Jeffrey Di Leo. NY: Palgrave Macmillan (September 2014; 27-44)
• “It’s Badly Done’: Redefining Craft in America is in the Heart.” Analyzing World Fiction: New Horizons in Narrative Theory. Ed. Frederick Aldama. University of Texas Press (September 2011, 199-225)
• “How to Write the Present Without Irony: Immanent Criticism in Lynne Tillman’s American Genius, A Comedy.” ebr: electronic book review (peer-reviewed online journal) (August 2011), no pagination; 35 pages in length
• “We are Not the World: Universalism and Global Village in Tropic of Orange.” Modern Fiction Studies (Fall 2007, Volume 53: 501-527); reprinted in The Literature and Globalization: A Reader. Eds. Liam Connell, Nicky Marsh. Routledge (September 2010)
• “Recognition as a Depleted Resource in Lynne Tillman’s Motion Sickness.” Symploke: Theoretical, Cultural, and Literary Scholarship. (Fall 2004, Volume 12.1-2: 139-152); reprinted in Fiction's Present: Situating Narrative Innovation. Eds. Ralph Berry, Jeff Di Leo. Albany: State University of New York Press (November 2007, 195-208)
• “Suspicious Characters: Realist Narrativity, Asian American Identity, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee.” The Journal of Narrative Theory. (Summer 2002, Volume 32.2: 227 258) 

Courses Taught

• Contemporary Fiction
• Senior Seminar in Criticism
• Introduction to English Studies
• Themes and Genres in Women’s Literature
• Immigrant Literature
• The Reader in Contemporary Fiction
• Introduction to Graduate Studies
• Aesthetics and Asian American Literature
• Asian American and African American Literature
• Asian American and World Literature