Oral History and Cultural Preservation in Larissa Lai’s The Tiger Flu
Abstract
Larissa Lai’s The Tiger Flu (2018) explores a potential future of environmental devastation and biologically innovative magical realism. This essay focuses on Lai’s preoccupation with forms of cultural preservation and the ways in which the changeable nature of language in oral histories ensures the dissemination and preservation of the most important parts of culture. By examining how Lai contrasts female-dominated oral history with corporate monopoly, rampant militarism, and questionable biological experimentation, this essay will navigate the ways in which Lai proposes that our current attempts toward cultural preservation are lacking.
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