An Interpretation Of The Theme Of Silence And Silence-breaking In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Amy Tan is a prominent Chinese American writer in the contemporary American literary world and has drawn considerable attention from mainstream critics at home and abroad. After its publication in 1989, her first novel The Joy Luck Club stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for nine months and won her several prestigious awards including the National Book Award for Fiction and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. Thus the novel enjoys high compliments and great popularity not only from the critics but among common readers.With the development of the feminist literature in the world, a variety of research perspectives arise. We can find that, in the field of literary criticism, the research on the theme of silence and silence-breaking in literary works has become a growing focus of feminist attention. In the novel The Joy Luck Club, silence and silence-breaking is one of the most important themes. It is of great use for us to comprehend the implications of silence and silence-breaking, which can help us to better probe the profound connotations of the novel and the writing intention of the writer. So the present thesis attempts to make a post-colonialist and feminist study of The Joy Luck Club with a focus on the theme of silence and silence-breaking.The thesis is composed of an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion. The introduction gives a brief account of Tan's life and career and a survey of the criticism on The Joy Luck Club. Besides, it also provides a glimpse into the text and states the objectives and significance of this study.In the first chapter, classifications and implications of silence are presented. Silence itself is inarticulate, but it has the real meaning beyond language. Silence with different functions can deliver different pragmatic implications under different cultural contexts. According to the appropriateness of its usage in cultural communication, silence can be classified into two types—articulate and positive silence & pernicious and negative silence. Chapter Two analyzes the silence of Chinese American women under the milieu of racism from the perspective of post-colonialism, which reveals the conflicts hidden behind silence, namely the conflicts between Chinese Americans and white Americans and between Chinese and American cultures. In the third chapter, the thesis focuses on the silent status quo of the Chinese American women caused by the patriarchal culture from the feminist perspective. The persecution imposed on women by sexual discrimination is described and the conflicts between genders are disclosed. As a result, silence must be broken. Only by breaking the silence can the misunderstandings and conflicts between the"joy luck"mothers and their daughters be removed. Chapter four concerns the importance and necessity of silence-breaking as well as the narrative strategies for breaking the silence, namely"Story-telling","Reconstructing Female Subjectivity"and"Righting Stereotypes". Finally a conclusion is reached. Only by breaking the silence, articulating their own voices, reconstructing female subjectivity and pursuing the real self, can the Chinese American women recognize themselves, can a harmonious and equal relationship be maintained, and ultimately can the ideal state of"joy"and"luck"be achieved.The thesis is intended to offer a new perspective for the future research on Amy Tan and other writers of Asian origin.