COLONIAL ECHOES IN IVORY TOWERS: THE WHITE GAZE IN CHOU'S NARRATIVE

Abstract

Elaine Hsieh Chou’s disorientation offers a compelling narrative that critiques the intellectual and racial hierarchy present in contemporary educational institutions. This article explores how the novel's depiction of Ingrid Yang, an Asian American doctorate student torn between institutional expectations and cultural heritage, dramatizes academic imperialism and the white gaze. The study investigates how race, power, and identity are negotiated in prestigious intellectual settings that still marginalize non-white scholars through close reading and postcolonial analysis. The white gaze manifests as an internalized mechanism that molds identity and belonging in addition to being a force of exterior judgment. This paper highlights the need to dismantle prevailing epistemologies in favor of more inclusive and egalitarian narratives by examining cultural appropriation, microaggressions, and the myth of meritocracy. It also illuminates the colonial echoes that still exist in academia.