National AbjectionNational Abjection explores the vexed relationship between "Asian Americanness" and "Americanness through a focus on drama and performance art. Karen Shimakawa argues that the forms of Asian Americanness that appear in U. S. culture are a function of national abjectiona process that demands that Americanness be defined by the exclusion of Asian Americans, who are either cast as symbolic foreigners incapable of integration or Americanization or