SOURCE: Balce, Nerissa S. “Dogeaters, by Jessica Hagedorn.” In A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature, edited by Sau-ling Cynthia Wong and Stephen H. Sumida, pp. 54-65. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2001.

In the following essay, Balce provides an overview of the historical context, critical reception, and major themes of Dogeaters, including a supplemental bibliography of writings by and about Hagedorn.

Publication Information

[Dogeaters, by Jessica Hagedorn, was first] published in the United States by Pantheon Books in 1990. Paperback edition published by Penguin Books in 1991. Received a National Book Award nomination in 1990.

Overview

A novel with more than forty vignette-like chapters set mostly in the Philippines, Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters challenges the norms of reading with its stylized, non-traditional form. The novel's structure includes different linguistic and stylistic registers that signal shifts in the narratives, giving the effect of a collage of lives or stories. The novel...