Transforming self, family, and community: Women in the novels of Anne Tyler, Toni Morrison, and Amy Tan

This dissertation discusses the oppressions and resistances of women from various classes and cultural backgrounds. The dissertation historicizes, contextualizes and offers a systematic analysis of intertwining forces that oppress and exploit women across races, classes, generations, and cultural locations, namely, western imperialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and patriarchy within one's home and culture. The purpose of such historicizing, contextualizing and analyzing is to supply women's liberation projects occurring in various classes, races, times, cultures, and locations with all-encompassing, interrelated insights, clear and cooperative directions, and alliance. The project aims towards women's justice in the global level.;Novel is one of the media to influence society's members' thoughts. Therefore, novel, or the novelist, plays the significant role as mediator to raise questions concerning injustice and provides impulses for readers to recreate a better world. The novelist speaks through his/her stories and characters. The novels chosen in this dissertation to voice women's oppression and represent women's liberation are written by Anne Tyler, Toni Morrison, and Amy Tan.;Even though these novelists are American women of different racial backgrounds, they can also be interpreted in the globally related level. The main women characters in these novels offer alternative values and practices different from the ones imposed, prescribed, or even enticed by the hegemonic western imperialist capitalist patriarchy. Even though sometimes they have to subject to the hegemonic forces for the survival of the self and their dependents, there are moments when they break away from the prescribed necessities to create new possibilities.;Finally, even though the women characters can not have a complete victory at one single moment, the works emphasize the continuity of struggles. The purpose of the women's struggles is not to create a closure or a perfect, ideal utopian world. The struggles are to insist on constant re-examination, re-negotiation and transformation, a way to continuously undermine the hegemonic group who usually appropriates any liberation project to its benefits.