Identity Portraying & Cross-Cultural Mentality Penetration

This dissertation is constructed out of three main parts, viz Introduction, Detailed Analyses, and Conclusion. The Introduction, chapter 1 &2, brings out the essentials on the general objectives, the analytic framework, the research methodology, and the situational context of this study. The Detailed Analyses, chapter 3, 4 & 5, provide in-depth analyses of the perplexing phenomena having been speculated on in the English creative writings by contemporary overseas Chinese, namely the portraying of Chinese imagery, the reinterpretation of cultural identity, the transformation of personal fate, and the narrative modes in post-colonial context. In the Conclusion, chapter 6, speculative viewpoints are put forward and merits and drawbacks are evaluated in the hope of providing fresh impetus to contemporary comparative literary studies in terms of its redefinition and its further theorization.Chapter 1, "Introduction: disciplinary ideology of literary works in English by overseas Chinese", emphasizes the primary motives and research methodology. Being an exposition of the objectives of the dissertation, this chapter describes the characteristics of overseas Chinese literature as well as its disciplinary orientation. It also states the basic research methodology, which exercises western modern theories in the study of literary works in non-native language by overseas Chinese. Importance of case-study is highlighted and theory-frameworked textual research is stressed in pursuit of unveiling the versatility of both textual interpretation and 'writing per se. Chapter 2, "Context and keywords in contemporary overseas Chinese literary works in English", penetrates the actual living context of overseas Chinese through a historical and logical research mode, and therefore marshalling the new theory-bound keywords of overseas Chinese literary studies, namely post-colonialism, globalization & localization, cultural china, cultural identity, writings in native & non-native language, and "looking & being looked at", power discourse, etc. This chapter accentuates that non-native language writing by overseas Chinese is a newly emerged phenomenon after confronting modernism.Chapter 3, "Chinese imagery portraying and cultural identity reinterpretation", steers the study into textual analyses. Chinese experiences and historical narrative linking two generations of Chinese immigrants are expounded so as to reveal the unbreakably interwoven ties between the dialogue of two generations and modern history of china. In the conflict, misunderstanding and harmonization of Chinese & western cultures, this chapter examines the Chinese experiences of overseas Chinese and their memories and reflections shown in historical narrative, and thus unscrolling the national trauma in modern history of china.Chapter 4, "Personal fate and Chinese imagery writing", speculates on the calamitous Cultural-Revolution and individual fate, and analyzes the writers' distinctively penned political narratives. Trying to re-look at modem chronology in a context of everyday-life narrative, it aims at an analytic study of discourse representations and the primary disposition to value.Chapter 5, "Analyzing narrative modes in a post-colonial context", draws attention to: the entanglement with clan and national fate in modern Chinese history, the Eurasian 'mother' image, the ideological reflections in the new world, the 'father' image and the power of a Chinese clan, the 'red' narrative & personal experience of Cultural-Revolutionary autocracy, the reflection on personal trauma and Chinese imagery re-portraying, and the recognition of the difference between overseas Chinese and Chinese native identity.Chapter 6, "Evaluating the merits and drawbacks in overseas Chinese literature", gives in-depth analyses of the merits and drawbacks. It marshals the questions emerged in the process of analyzing so as to bring forward a more problem-aware development in overseas Chinese literature.