unsaying the dominant historical narrative of in-
ternment,” and her narrative consequently “resists
the totalizing tendencies of ‘master narratives’ of
history” (118). Indeed, Obasan’s silence constitutes
her refusal to reaffirm the injustices committed by
the nation she deeply admires.
The novel acquires a spiritual dimension by
endowing Naomi’s silences with transcendent sig-
nificance. Naomi often gains significant insights
while communing with nature. Water imagery
predominates, accentuating the maternal element.
By emphasizing Naomi’s sense of place, Kogawa
foregrounds Naomi’s identification with her Ca-
nadian home.
In several dream sequences, Naomi finds out
more about her repressed memories. Dreams of
dismembered women and cruel questioning by
a Grand Inquisitor answer some of Naomi’s un-
spoken questions. It is also through dreams that
Naomi’s mother continues to communicate with
her daughter long after her death.
One passage that clearly illustrates Kogawa’s
lyrical, detail-oriented prose style features Naomi
at Obasan’s house. When Naomi and her aunt
search for mementoes in the attic, Naomi notices
a big spiderweb. After observing the frightening
creature for some time, Naomi, already upset by
the clutter of her aunt’s life, begins to feel just like
the spider’s prey caught in the web of history.
Bibliography
Cheung, King-Kok. “Attentive Silence in Joy Kogawa’s
Obasan.” In Listening to Silences: New Essays in
Feminist Criticism, edited by Elaine Hedges and
Shelley Fisher Fishkin, 113–129. New York: Ox-
ford University Press. 1994.
Duncan, Patti. Tell This Silence. Iowa City: University
of Iowa Press, 2004.
Goellnicht, Donald C. “Father Land and/or Mother
Tongue: The Divided Female Subject in Kogawa’s
Obasan and Hong Kingston’s The Woman War-
rior.” In Redefining Autobiography in Twentieth-
Century Women’s Fiction: An Essay Collection,
edited by Janice Morgan, Colette T. Hall, Carol L.
Snyder, 119–134. New York: Garland, 1991.
Susanna Hoeness-Krupsaw
Oeur, U Sam (1936– )
U Sam Oeur (pronounced oo samm oohr) was
born in Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia, to a large
and moderately prosperous farming family when
the country was a protectorate of France. As a
child, Oeur herded water buffalo, tended rice pad-
dies, and studied in the French colonial schools.
In 1962, after graduating from the School of Arts
and Trades in Phnom Penh, Oeur was offered the
chance to study industrial arts at California State
University, Los Angeles, through the U.S. Agency
for International Development (AID), whose goal
was to repatriate students as teachers in their re-
spective home countries. While studying engineer-
ing, Oeur wrote poetry for fun. For a graphic arts
project, he printed nine of his poems; later, the
Asia Foundation sent them to Mary Gray at the
University of Iowa. Impressed with his captivating
melodies and skillful use of poetic structures, Gray
secured Oeur a place in the Iowa Writers’ Work-
shop, where he met his lifelong friend and trans-
lator, Kenneth McCullough, wrote The Hunting
World, and completed his M.F.A.
In 1968 Oeur returned a very different man to a
very different Cambodia. He taught for six months
but left to work in a cannery after he was threat-
ened with prison for labeling Prince Norodom
Sihanouk a Communist sympathizer. Through
the early 1970s, Oeur served in Lon Nol’s internal
security army, in the National Assembly, and as a
delegate to the United Nations; he was appointed
secretary general of the Khmer League for Free-
dom. All this time, he spoke openly about the
democratic ideals of freedom and liberty that had
excited him as a college student. However, Cam-
bodia, destabilized by the U.S. invasion during
the Vietnam War, fell when Nol forced Sihanouk’s
abdication. In retaliation, Sihanouk joined with
Maoist Saloth Sar—later known as Pol Pot—and
his Khmer Rouge forces. By the mid-1970s, Pol
and the Khmer Rouge solidified power, forcing
Phnom Penh’s population into labor camps and
condemning politicians, bureaucrats, and indi-
viduals deemed political dissenters. Pol eliminated
an estimated 2 million Cambodians (30 percent of
the country’s population).224 Oeur, U Sam