Abstract The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts is the award-winning and the first published work of Maxine Hong Kingston, one of the most representative female writers in the 20th century Chinese American literary circles. As a complex portrayal of Chinese American life in the 20th century, The Woman Warrior is considered to be a milestone of Chinese American literature. This paper aims to provide an interpretation about how Maxine Hong Kingston manages to find a breakthrough in terms of gender, race and culture in order to help Chinese American women to construct a new identity. Firstly, Maxine Hong Kingston is trying to seek equality with men via two contrastive female images, No Name Woman and Mulan, and points out that “androgyny” can be the effective solution to building gender identity. Secondly, by means of the narrator’s experience, she notes that it is to actively integrate into American culture that can help Chinese American female subvert their own “other” status and construct their racial identity. Thirdly, to get out of the dilemma of the conflicts from Chinese tradition and American culture and to build their own cultural identity, she presents an example of Ts’ai Yen, a Chinese poetess who is good at using the power of art to liberate herself. Through The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston declares that Chinese American female should rely on their own efforts to recover their dignity and construct their new identity of gender, race and culture.35212
Key Words: Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior Chinese American women new Identity
摘要《女勇士——一段鬼影憧憧下的少女回忆》是汤亭亭出版的第一部作品,也是她的成名作和代表作。由于真实地反映了20世纪华裔美国人的生活,《女勇士》被认为是华裔文学的一个里程碑,在20世纪美国华裔文学界占有重要的地位。本文着重分析汤亭亭如何在性别、种族和文化方面寻找突破,帮助美国的华裔女性构建新的身份。首先,为了追求男女平等,汤亭亭试图通过两个具有对比性的女性形象——无名女人和花木兰,指出“雌雄同体”是帮助华裔女性构建新的性别身份的有效途径。其次,她借助小说叙述者的经历,说明积极融入美国文化能够帮助华裔女性颠覆自己的“他者”的地位,以构建自己的种族身份。第三,汤亭亭运用蔡琰的例子,一个善于用艺术的力量解放自己的中国女诗人来帮助华裔女性走出中国传统和美国文化的双重影响的困境,并构建自己的文化身份。通过《女勇士》,汤亭亭证明了华裔女性可以依靠自己的努力来重获尊严和构建她们的新的性别、种族和文化身份。
毕业论文关键词: 汤婷婷 《女勇士》 华裔女性 新身份
Contents
Abstract i
摘要 ii
Introduction 1
Chapter One Construction of Gender Identity 4
Chapter Two Construction of Racial Identity 7
Chapter Three Construction of Cultural Identity 10
Conclusion 14
Works Cited 15
On the Construction of New Chinese American Female Identity in The Woman Warrior
Introduction
Maxine Hong Kingston is one of the most important female writers in Chinese American literary circles during the 20th century. She has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United States. She has received several awards for her achievements including the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1981 for China Men. Shirley Geok-lin Lim regards that, “Kingston aims to reconstruct the Chinese American female subjectivity in a way that would give themselves the ability of imaging possibilities through continuous namings of female presence.”(Lim 261) 汤婷婷《女勇士》华裔女性新身份:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_33063.html