Finding Tender Roots: Affiliation, Disability and Racial Melancholia in Monique Truong's Bitter in the Mouth
This paper uses feminist disability studies and diaspora studies to analyze the protagonist's identity as a disabled transracial adoptee. View/Download on DigitalCommons@URI The Two Souths in Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth Published in bitter in the mouth pdf
This paper explores how Truong utilizes this condition not merely as a stylistic gimmick, but as a profound metaphor for the difficulty of communication. In a digitized world where the novel is frequently accessed via PDF by students and scholars, the text ironically emphasizes the physicality of language. Linda does not just read words; she tastes them. This paper posits that Bitter in the Mouth is a treatise on the "unspoken," challenging the reader to look beyond the surface of the text—much like Linda must look beyond the flavor of a word to find its meaning. Linda does not just read words; she tastes them