Blankness and Concealment in Gish Jen's <italic style="font-style: italic">Bad Bad Girl</italic>:The Aesthetics of the Unsayable

Wen Gao

doi:10.47297/wsprolaadWSP2634-786511.20260701

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Blankness and Concealment in Gish Jen's <italic style="font-style: italic">Bad Bad Girl</italic>:The Aesthetics of the Unsayable

Volume 7, Issue 1

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Blankness and Concealment in Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl:The Aesthetics of the Unsayable
Blankness and Concealment in Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl:The Aesthetics of the Unsayable
Henan University of Engineering, Xinzheng, Henan, 451191, China
Vol. 7, Issue 1, Pages: 49-54(2026)
Published：28 February 2026
DOI：10.47297/wsprolaadWSP2634-786511.20260701
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Wen Gao.Blankness and Concealment in Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl:The Aesthetics of the Unsayable[J].Research on Literary and Art Development,2026,07(01):49-54.
DOI：

Wen Gao.Blankness and Concealment in Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl:The Aesthetics of the Unsayable[J].Research on Literary and Art Development,2026,07(01):49-54. DOI： 10.47297/wsprolaadWSP2634-786511.20260701.

摘要

Abstract

Gish Jen's

Bad Bad Girl

(2025) is shaped by what cannot be fully said. Moving between novel and memoir

it uses omission

interruption

and partial disclosure to represent trauma

migration

and shame as experiences that resist full articulation. Gaps in the mother's archive

shifts in voice and perspective

and scenes of distance and failed communication all show that silence is not marginal

but central to the novel's way of making meaning. These silences are especially evident within the family

where generational reticence intersects with gendered expectations of propriety. The mother's refusal to explain herself and the daughter's guardedness shape the emotional terms of their relationship and reveal how women negotiate unequal structures while preserving limited forms of agency. By withholding full explanation

the work also asks readers to interpret with care

while resisting over-reading. In this way

Bad Bad Girl

extends Jen's long-standing concern with migration

family

and identity into a more inward and formally unsettled mode. It shows how diasporic autofiction can turn silence into both narrative force and ethical pressure.

关键词

Keywords

references

Aucoin, C. I. (2025, October 28). In Bad Bad Girl , Gish Jen re-imagines the relationship with her mother. WBUR .

Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed Experience: Trauma , Narrative, and History. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Evans, D. (2025, November 15). The bruises that bleed through generations: Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen. Financial Times .

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Hai-Jew, S. (2025, November 8). In Bad Bad Girl , a daughter comes to terms with late estranged mother. International Examiner .

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Jen, G. (2025). Bad Bad Girl . Alfred A. Knopf.

Lowe, L. (1996). Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics . Duke University Press.

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Trinh, T. Minh-ha. (1989). Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism . Indiana University Press.

Ullrich, R. (2021). The hidden labor of women in Gish Jen's Typical American. Humanities Bulletin , 4(1):230–243.

Wang, Y. (2022). The Chinese Literature Tradition and the Chinese Novels Written by New Immigrants to North America. China Social Sciences Press .

Yang, J. (2020). Silence with teeth: The operations and implications of silence in Gish Jen's Typical American. American Studies , 52(3):209-227.

Wang, L.X. (2011). Alienation and integration: zn analysis of Chinese American literature. Shidai Literature (First Half of the Month), (4):109-110.

Zhang, Y. (2011). The view of identity fluidity in Gish Jen's works. Journal of Chaohu University , 2011(2):62-64.

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Blankness and Concealment in Gish Jen's Bad Bad Girl:The Aesthetics of the Unsayable

DOI：10.47297/wsprolaadWSP2634-786511.20260701

摘要

Abstract

关键词

Keywords

references