Despite the seeming supremacy of car cultu re in the United States\, the train has long been and continues to be a po tent symbol of American exceptionalism\, ingenuity\, and vastness. For alm ost two centuries\, the train has served as the literal and symbolic vehic le for American national identity\, manifest destiny\, and imperial ambiti ons. It&rsquo\;s no surprise\, then\, that the train continues to endure i n depictions across literature\, film\, ad music.
\n\n"The Racial Railroad" high lights the surprisingly central role that the railroad has played&mdash\;a nd continues to play&mdash\;in the formation and perception of racial iden tity and difference in the United States. Julia H. Lee argues that the tra in is frequently used as the setting for stories of race because it operat es across multiple registers and scales of experience and meaning\, both a s an invocation of and a depository for all manner of social\, historical\ , and political narratives.
\nLee demonstrates how\, through legacie
s of racialized labor and disenfranchisement&mdash\;from the Chinese Ameri
can construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and the depictions of Na
tive Americans in landscape and advertising\, to the underground railroad
and Jim Crow segregation&mdash\;the train becomes one of the exemplary spa
ces through which American cultural works explore questions of racial subj
ectivity\, community\, and conflict. \;By considering the train throug
h various lenses\, "The Racial Railroad" tracks how racial formations and
conflicts are constituted in significant and contradictory ways by the spa
ces in which they occur.
\;
Dr. Julia Lee \;is professo
r and chair of Asian American Studies at the University of California\, Ir
vine. She is the author of "Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representat
ions in African and Asian American Literatures\, 1896-1938" (New York Univ
ersity Press\, 2011) and "Understanding Maxine Hong Kingston" (University
of South Carolina Press\, 2018). Along with Professor Josephine Lee\, Juli
a is the coeditor of \;Asian American Literature in Transition\, Volum
e 1\, 1850-1930 \;(Cambridge University Press\, 2021). She received he
r PhD in American literature from UCLA and is a former University of Calif
ornia President's Postdoctoral Fellow. She teaches undergraduate and gradu
ate courses on Asian American literature\, Asian American Popular Cultures
\, Korean American Experience\, Asian American Communities\, and Race and
Urban Space.