Minor Feelings

by Cathy Park Hong · 2020

Minor Feelings is a collection of essays by poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong that blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to examine racialized consciousness in America. Through the lens of her own experiences as the daughter of Korean immigrants, Hong explores her theory of 'minor feelings'—the dissonance that arises when American optimism clashes with the reality of one's own racial identity. The book delves into themes of shame, depression, the English language, female friendship, and the search for truth, offering a portrait of the Asian American psyche.