Ailment-Narration Of Chinese-American Women Literature In Post-colonial Context

The theories of post-colonism emphasize the indirect oppression of the West on the East in terms of economy, politics, and the right of speech, which might be interpreted as a kind of measure used by one civilization to dominate or even enslave another. Thus, the theories of post-colonism have been widely applied to decode and analyses the literary works composed by the Chinese American writers.In the context of the post-colonism, the narrations of ailments by Chinese American women writers have already gone beyond the boundary of medical therapy, and become the revelation of certain identity confusion of minority women in the mainstream society which is closely connected with the social institution, racial discrimination as well as the status of minority. In the literary works of Chinese American women writers, the reflection of history, culture as well as the existence of human being has been decoded by means of the narration of the ailments. As a consequence, it is essential to trace the origin of these narrations of ailments and to find out the treatments to them, since both the ailments and treatment are important metaphors of Chinese American woman writers'identity-seeking in the context of post-colonism, which is evidently symbolic and crucial in the research of the Chinese American woman writers.The main point of the thesis is to analyses Chinese American women writers'revelation of the dual otherness of women shackled by the masculine hierarchical society as well as the mainstream white culture based on their personal experiences in their literary works, and their endeavor for the treatments and solutions to these "ailments" to revolutionarily recreate beyond the binary opposition widely accepted by the mainstream white or masculine hierarchical society.Not only the resistance of the Chinese American women towards both racial and gender discrimination is demonstrated, but also does the transcendence of woman identity over the issues of gender, class, as well as race in the background of post-colonism.There are five chapters in this essay. The first chapter summarizes the development of Chinese American women literature, and its connection with the theories of post-colonism as well as the significance of the theme of this essay. The second chapter focuses on decoding the typical narrations of ailments such as insanity, anorexia and aphasia, and their metaphors in literary works through the theories of post-colonism. The third chapter analysizes the causes of ailment narration through the aspects of historical background, body discipline and Chinese American women'psychology by the theory of historical analysis, body politics and psychology. The fourth chapter tries to find out the treatments through the perspectives of history, literature, and culture in Chinese American women writers'works. The last chapter discloses the essence of the identity of Chinese American women being between the worlds of eastern and western culture and is under the double pressure of gender and race, which is typical in the process of globalization, therefore further emphasize the literary, social and practical significance of the essay.