A Study On The Woman Warrior From The Perspective Of Post-colonial Feminism

Maxine Hong Kingston [Maxine Hong Kingston 1940-] is considered as the contemporary American writer who has won the widest range of readers, selected anthology and teaching material in Europe, North America and Australia. Her three awarded novels known as The Woman Warrior (1976), China Men (1980) and Tripmaster Monkey (1987) have already become classics in American literature. These three demonstrating works have developed the basic subjects for later Asian American writers. As Kingston's first and signature work, The Woman Warrior was even praised by Bill Clinton as "an epoch-making work". It not only symbolizes that the Chinese American literature begins to hold a position in the American mainstream literature but also sounds the bugle of Chinese feminine writer's fighting against authorities with pen.Owing to the fact that the image of Chinese American woman is often distorted and stereotyped, this thesis tries to present readers with a new approach to The Woman Warrior. Based on a systematic close study of the text and with the image of women character as the clue throughout the whole novel, this thesis aims to reveal that this novel did not fall into the trap of Western discourse but finally subverts the Orientalism discourse under the rule of Western-centrism from the following three aspects:the aphasia of the weak women in the novel, the five women's fighting against patriarchy, male chauvinism and cultural hegemony and their death or living or rebirth after death. Therefore, to a greater degree, a conclusion can be drawn that The Woman Warrior not only subverts Orientalism but also represents the tradition of Chinese heroines, which will bring the possibility of women's engaging in a dialogue with the male authority as well as self-speaking at the new era and will help promote exchanges and integration between Chinese culture and Western culture.The thesis consists of five chapters in addtion to an introduction and a conclusion.The introduction firstly introduces the motivation of the study on The Woman Warrior and then makes an overview of the research background, literature review, research approaches and research significance and finally draws forth the research contents.The first chapter firstly reviews the distorted and stereotyped images of Chinese American women in American literary works and media under the rule of Orientalism discourse and Western centralism as well as its reasons. Then the author makes an introduction to Maxine Hong Kingston and her literary position in American literary field and her reasons for breaking stereotypes.The second chapter deals with postcolonial feminist theory and present the readers with the aphasia of the three female characters—"No Name Aunt", "Aunt Moon Orchid" and "Silent Chinese Girl".The third chapter mainly analyzes the process of warriors'breaking of the weak females'aphasia either with death or force and swords or words to fight against patriarchy, male chauvinism and cultural hegemony as well as the narrative strategy of the text. The interlaced narration in the novel not only decorates the whole story with ups and downs but also makes the plot vivid and attractive and can reminds readers of the existence of the women warriors at any place and any time.The fourth chapter makes a detailed study of the five women images from the perspective of postcolonial feminism and shows that the new images of women warriors subverted the distorted and stereotyped ones in existing Orientalism discourse. The Woman Warrior is made up of five stories and each story contains a woman character. First, "Aunt Moon Orchid" is a victim under the hegemony of cultural imperialism. Second, "Mother Brave Orchid" is the one who wakes up from the conflict of Chinese culture and American culture. Third, "No Name Aunt" rings alarm to patriarchy and male chauvinism through her suicide. Fourth, "I—Hua Mulan" fought against patriarchy and cultural hegemony with sword, so she is a warrior fighting with force. Finally, "Poetess Cai Yan" is a writing warrior like the author who successfully broke the aphasia and changed her fate in the end and thus she will forever live in people's heart.The last chapter reveals the progressive change and sublimation of postcolonial feminist images in The Woman Warrior through the analysis of the internal relationship of the five female characters and discusses the significance of Maxine Hong Kingston's cross-cultural writing in creating the five new women images. The change from the "No Name Aunt"'s death to "Hua Mulan"'s and "Mother Brave Orchid"'s living to "Aunt Moon Orchid"'s death to "Poetess Cai Yan'"s survival in the end represents a rebirth aiming at a groundbreaking change of the weak and stereotyped Chinese American women images to remold new women warriors, which also represents the tradition of Chinese heroines. What's more, with the development of the plot, the images of five women take up a progressive look. This change is indeed a course of sublimation. The significant change of the five images from victim of cultural hegemony to a woman with consciousness to a woman ringing alarm to patriarchy and male chauvinism through her suicide to a battler fighting with sword to a writer and singer indeed reflects a process of sublimation.The conclusion points out that based on a systematic text analysis of the images of five women warriors, the thesis has made a creative and comparatively comprehensive interpretation of The Woman Warrior from. the perspective of postcolonial feminism and reveals that the new images of women warriors in The Woman Warrior not only subverts the distorted and stereotyped images of Chinese American women but also represents the tradition of Chinese heroines embodied in "Hua Mulan" and "Cai Yan". Through this interpretation, the thesis affirms the significance of Kingston's cross-cultural writing in hope of shedding light on complementation of literary criticism methods as far as promoting the exchange and integration between Chinese culture and Western culture.