《Chinese American Women’s Quest for Identity in The Woman Warrior 英语专业毕业论文.doc》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《Chinese American Women’s Quest for Identity in The Woman Warrior 英语专业毕业论文.doc（33页珍藏版）》请在三一办公上搜索。
1、本科毕业设计（论文）诚信声明本人声明：我所呈交的本科毕业设计（论文）是我个人在导师指导下对四年专业知识而进行的研究工作及全面的总结。尽我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢中所罗列的内容以外，论文中创新处不包含其他人已经发表或撰写的研究成果，也不包含为获得北京化工大学或其它教育机构的学位或证书而已经使用过的材料。与我一同完成毕业设计（论文）的同学对本课题所做的任何贡献均已在文中做了明确的说明并表示了谢意。若有不实之处，本人承担一切相关责任。本人签名： 日期： 年 月 日本科生毕业设计（论文）任务书设计（论文）题目： Chinese American Womens Quest for Identit
2、y in The Woman Warrior 学院： 文法学院 专业： 英语 班级： 英语0701 学生： 指导教师（含职称）： 盛海燕（讲师） 专业负责人： 1 设计（论文）的主要任务及目标主要任务：用女权主义理论分析汤婷婷女勇士中华裔女性的自身的属性追求。目标：加深对华裔文学作品中华裔女性的困境及其对属性追寻的解读。2设计（论文）的基本要求和内容基本要求：1）英语5500字以上； 2）小四字体打印； 3）字体为Times New Roman。内容：分析和探讨华裔女性在性别歧视及文化冲突的双重压迫下对自我身份属性的探索与追求。3主要参考文献Huntley, E.D. Maxine Hong
3、Kingston: A Critical CompanionM. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior. Memoirs of a Girlhood Among GhostsM. London: Picador, 1981.白丽. 探寻女勇士中的女性主义J. 语文学刊：外语教育教学. 2010 (3): 22-244进度安排设计（论文）各阶段名称起 止 日 期1选题2010/102收集资料、进行文献综述2010/12-2011/33开题报告2010/124初稿201
4、1/45定稿2011/5-2011/6注：一式4份：学院、指导教师各1份、学生2份：毕业设计（论文）及答辩评分手册各一份 Chinese American Womens Quest for Identity in The Woman WarriorIs submitted byXie YuWeitoThe English DepartmentIn Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor ArtsSupervised by Sheng HaiyanBeijing University of Chemic
5、al TechnologyJune, 2011中文摘要美国华裔女作家汤亭亭于1976年发表了代表作女勇士，奠定了作者在美国文学界的地位。在女勇士中，汤亭亭以独特的女性视角,生动记载了华裔妇女在美的心路历程，重新审视了华裔妇女的生存状态及内心世界。本文以女勇士为研究对象，旨在深入分析和探讨华裔女性在性别歧视及文化冲突的双重压迫下对自我身份属性的探索与追求。本文首先通过分析主人公亲身经历以及听闻的种种女性歧视现象，揭露华裔妇女所遭受的不公正性别待遇，论述在倡导男权中心主义的父权制社会，华裔妇女深受性别迫害的事实。接着本文主要探讨文化冲突对华裔女性造成的困扰。由于特殊的身份背景,华裔妇女对她们的祖籍
6、地中国以及她们的所在地美国，或是暗藏在之后的两种不同文化有着复杂的情感。一方面,她们对本族裔误解重重由此造成对中国文化的疏远；另一方面,她们极力融入美国主流文化却又遭到排斥和边缘化。华裔妇女身陷两难境地,对她们的身份提出质疑。最后文章论述了华裔女姓在困境中不屈不挠，勇于挑战性别歧视，化解文化冲突，追寻自我价值的精神。主人公借助花木兰，蔡琰的故事,为华裔妇女在陌生世界中力求生存树立了榜样。然而正如花木兰，蔡琰一样,华裔妇女最终超越了性别，种族，实现了她们的精神成长。结论部分总结了华裔妇女精神成长的艰难历程。在消除性别歧视及种族歧视的过程中，华裔妇女挣脱了精神枷锁，实现了她们作为华裔妇女自我身份的
7、寻求。关键词：美国华裔女性 性别歧视 文化冲突 身份追求 AbstractMaxine Hong Kingston plays a significant role in Chinese American literature. As a Chinese-American woman as well as a feminist, she depicts the life experience of Chinese American women and explores their inner heart as well as their quest in her famous memoir T
8、he Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. This thesis adopts the theory of gynocriticism to study Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior. The study will focus on Chinese American womens quest for identity they deserve and the painful efforts they make under the double pressions of sexua
9、l discrimination and culture conflicts. First, it discusses the sexual discrimination the protagonist experiences by herself and learns from her mothers telling stories, thus showing the sexual unfairness Chinese American suffers. Then it talks in details about the culture conflicts which have caugh
10、t them into dilemma. Because of their special cultural background, they have complex feelings towards China and America, as well as the cultures behind two countries. They feel strange to the Chinese culture because of misunderstanding on one hand, and try hard to receive American culture but always
11、 get confused on the other. Stuck in such a dilemma makes Chinese American women reconsider the identity they need to deserve. Therefore, at the last part of the thesis, Chinese American womens pursuit of identity through their effort is highlighted. By retelling the stories of Fa Mu Lan and Ts an Y
12、en, the protagonist finds her courage to resist against sexual discrimination and reconcile culture conflicts. Just as Fa Mu Lan and Tsan, Chinese American women finally get spiritually free and have achieved their identity as women warrior through self-reconstruction.Key words: Chinese American Wom
13、en sexual discrimination culture conflicts quest for identity Contents1. Introduction12. The influence of sexual discrimination33. Culture conflicts which Chinese American women faced with63.1. Chinese American womens dilemma in American society73.1.1. Chinese American womens estrangement from Chine
14、se culture83.1.2. Feeling of strangeness in American society93.1.3. Confusion between collectivism and individualism103.1.4. Incomprehension between mother and daughter124. Chinese American womens pursuit of identity and self-reconstruction134.1. Chinese heritage reflected in excellent women in anci
15、ent China144.2. Pursuit of identity of the first generation: Brave Orchid164.3. Pursuit of identity of the second generation: Kinston185. Conclusion20Endnotes23Bibliography25Acknowledgements271. Introduction Maxine Hong Kingston, as one of the most significant Chinese American writers, has made grea
16、t contribution to feminist movement with her literature works, among which is her masterpiece: The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. Crowned the best nonfiction book by the National Book Critics Circle in 1976, The Woman Warrior mainly describes the authors own experience as a Chine
17、se American and as a woman, and discusses how her gender and ethnicity affect the lives of Chinese American women. By blending autobiography with old Chinese folktales and thus exposing the typical problems confronted by Chinese American women such as cultural conflicts, racial and sexual discrimina
18、tions as well as the problem of interaction between Chinese-born and American-born generations, Kingston tries to dig out Chinese Americans, especially Chinese American womens values and their own identity.Maxine Hong Kingstons view on Chinese American womens quest for identity and on feminism in he
19、r representative work The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts has aroused interest of many reviewers. According to E.D. Huntley, several themes can be dig out from the novel which include: “silence (both gendered and racially constituted); necessity for speech; the discovery of voice;
20、the construction of identity and the search for self-realization; the mother-daughter relationship and the conflicts that it engenders; memory; acculturation and biculturalism; and cultural alienation.” 1 For reviewer Miriam Greenspan, Maxine Hong Kingston captures “the pain of an American-born chil
21、d who inevitably reject the expectations and authority of her family in favor of the values of the new land” 2. Linda B. Hall describes the book as “remarkable in its insights into the plight of individuals pulled between two cultures”; 3 and Susan Currier writes in Dictionary of Literary Biography
22、that The Woman Warrior is a personal narrative that represents Kingstons effort “to reconcile American and Chinese female identities”. 4 However, since its publication in 1976, The Woman Warrior has maintained a vexed reception history that both attests to its popularity and questions it.5 Apart fro
23、m praises the book received for it expresses female anger, many reviewers criticize it for its misrepresenting of Chinese American women and reinforcing stereotype in the name of feminism. Sau-ling Wong perceives Kingstons Orientalist effect 6 to be the result of Kingstons failure to critique patria
24、rchal values or institutional racism, resulting in misconceptions about Chinese culture and Chinese Americans. She also points out, “According to Kinstons critics, the most pernicious of the stereotypes which might be supported by The Woman Warrior is that of Chinese American men as sexist”. 7 Benja
25、min Tong openly calls it a “fashionably feminist work with white acceptance in mind.”8 Reviewer Michael T. Malloy thought the book to have an exotic setting, but deemed it too mainstream American feminist, dealing with only the Me and Mom genre in her book Biography of Maxine Hong Kingston.9 These c
26、ritics on Kingstons feminism are always made based on the view of culture authenticity and with the idea of foreignness and nativeness, most of which do not take the writers growing background into consideration. Actually, as one of the second generation of Chinese American immigrants, Kingston gain
27、s a mixed cultural background through her efforts of culture reconciliation. This is also the reason for her reconstruction of the traditional Chinese stories. Besides, living under the double pressure of sexual discrimination and cultural conflicts gives Kingston a more unique insight to the idea o
28、f feminism. What she tries to express in The Women Warrior is her quest for identity as a Chinese American woman who not only suffers from sexual discrimination but also confronts with culture conflicts. Its this complex cultural background that has more influence on Kingstons feminism idea than the
29、 gender oppression of the society.Therefore, this thesis intends to dig out how Kingston reveals Chinese American womens quest for identity and the painful efforts they make in the background of sexual discrimination and cultural conflicts, and therefore explore Maxine Hong Kingstons unique view on
30、feminism as a Chinese American woman. 2. The influence of sexual discriminationSexual discrimination, according to The Oxford Dictionary, refers to the unfair attitudes or treatments on people, especially women, because of their sex. The phenomenon can be seen in many aspect of life in both American
31、 and Chinese societies. Especially in Kingstons times, the first immigrant generation was greatly influenced by the patriarchy idea that men were superior to women of old Chinese society. Therefore, being a daughter in an immigrant family, the narrator girl in the book, which is Maxine Hong Kingston
32、 herself, discovers early in life the glaring sexual discrimination exercised in the Chinatown community where she grew up. Her discovery is further verified by the messages implied in many of her mothers stories. It is her own life experiences in China town and other womens experiences told by the
33、narrators mother that give her the knowledge that Chinese American women are suffering a lot from sexual discrimination.Born in 1940 in a Chinese laundryman family in Stockton, California, the protagonist spent her childhood in the Chinese immigrant community. During her early years, she began to no
34、tice the gender discrimination attitudes within her community. Since she is the oldest of six children, three of whom are boys, it is not long before she finds out that sexual discriminations start at the very moment of birth: while the birth of a boy occasions a joyful celebration that lasts as lon
35、g as one month, the birth of a girl passes by unnoticed. For instance, when a boy was born to Maxines Third Grand Uncle who already had three girls, the boys parents and his great grandfather gave him a full-month party, inviting all emigrant neighbors; moreover, they bought him toys, new diapers, n
36、ew plastic pants. As for girls, no parties were given in their name, and they had to play with used toys, homemade diapers, and bread bags. Besides, while willing to buy the boy giant toy trucks and a bicycle, the father would not purchase a typewriter for the girls, who he believed could be clerk-t
37、ypists. Finally, before the advent of the boy, the girls great grand father used to call them “maggots” at every meal, a name suggestive of their being good for nothing but eating up food.Sexual discrimination can also be seen in Maxine Hongs own house. She remember that their parents are ashamed to
38、 take she and her sister out together, for the emigrant villagers will shake their heads at them. “one girland another girl,” they may say. And whenever her great uncle went shopping, he would take only the boys along with him and buy them sweets and new toys. 10“Come, children. Hurry. Hurry. Who wa
39、nts to go out with Great-Uncle?” On Saturday mornings my great-uncle, the ex-river pirate, did the shopping. “Get your coats, whoevers coming.”“Im coming. Im coming. Wait for me.”When he heard girls voice, he turned on us and roared, “No girls!” and left my sisters and me hanging our coats back up,
40、not looking at one another.11Apparently, the word “children” in her great uncles mind only means “boys”, and “girls” are definitely something inferior to “boys” that even have no right to go out with him. By roaring “no girls” her great uncle shows his prejudice toward girls which gives the protagon
41、ist and her sister such a disappointment and anger.Behind these sexual discriminations lies the deep rooted concept that “there is an outward tendency in females” 12 or “When you are raising children for strangers.” 13. Therefore, when Maxine told her mother that she got straight As, her mother inev
42、itably interpreted it as “she was getting straight As for the good of future husbands family, not own”14. Its this kind of conventional idea that a woman, once married, becomes a member of her husbands family that has given rise to a pervasive anti-female trend as reflected in sayings like “Girls ar
43、e maggots in rice.” “It is more profitable to raise geese than daughters,” and “Feeding girls is feeding cowbirds”15. By comparing girls to maggots that eat up rice or cowbirds that build no nests but lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, the emigrant community has denied Chinese American fema
44、les humanity on the one hand and stripped them of their self-worth on the other.Apart from what she witnessed and experienced in Chinatown community, her mothers stories are also filled with sense of sexual descrimination, which have imprinted in her mind a vivid picture of China, where women were o
45、utrageously oppressed. When talking stories about her life in China, Brave Orchid told Maxine how, after graduating from To Keung School of Midwifery, she purchased a slave girl in the market and trained her to be her nurse. In this case, Maxine cannot help herself to connecting the story of girls a
46、s sellable items. Brave Orchid also tells her of the inhuman practice of killing girl babies at the birth beds: “the midwife or a relative would take the back of a babys head in her hand and turn her face into the ashes” 16. Among these stories, which impressed Maxine most is the story of the unname
47、d paternal aunt, who got pregnant long after her newly-wed husband had sailed for the Gold Mountain which was an embodiment of alienation from identity, self, family, society and nature at that time. The family remained silent about this fact, but the people of the village had noticed it, too. One n
48、ight just before the due date of the babys birth, the villagers wearing masks, raided the house of the no name woman as punishment. They destroyed the familys crop, slaughtered their livestock, broke their household goods, and ruined their supplies. During the raid, the family could only stand and stare in disbelief. The woman gave birth in the pigsty that same night and Brave Orchid found her sister-in-law and the baby the next day drow
