Decoding The Bonesetter's Daughter From The Perspective Of Trauma Theory

As one of the most prominent Chinese American female writers, Amy Tan has had a great influence over the readers around the world. Till now, she has published five long novels, two children's books, her essays and stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, her works have been translated into more than twenty-five different languages. All her five novels succeed in attracting the common readers and are given quite a lot of attention by critics as well. Likewise, Amy Tan phenomenon existed in America for a long time.Published in 2001, Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter also won her terrific reputation of attracting the attention of the American reading public to the Chinese elements in her works. The Bonesetter's Daughter reveals the stories happened to three generations in one family. Precious Auntie, as the grandmother, becomes a widow and an orphan on her wedding day, she finally kills herself in order to prevent her daughter from marrying to an evil family. LuLing, the mother, suffers from her mother's terrible death all her life. At the same time, she is also annoyed by the relationship with her daughter Ruth, who does not understand her. The interwoven plot displays the life-death relationships among the three women. Fortunately, they get reconciled in the end and they find each other's love, which is what Amy Tan tries to tell her readers in the book.This thesis is composed of six parts including an introduction and a conclusion. The Introduction briefly involves the main idea of The Bonesetter's Daughter, and the literary critics in China as well as abroad. Trauma, as a common psychological experience, has always been the theme of literature narration. Through analyzing literary works combined with trauma theory, it offers a new perspective while studying the great works of the past and the future, which is also stated in this part as the emphasis of this thesis.Chapter One introduces the concept of trauma and the development of trauma theory in order to lay for a solid foundation for the following analysis. In this chapter, trauma theory studied in the humanities, like history, culture, literature, and so on, is also mentioned, above which paves the way for reading this novel as trauma fiction. Reading this novel as trauma fiction can be proved from the tone of the novel, the haunting theme of it, and Tan's repetition writing technique.Chapter Two focuses on the traumatic symptoms of the characters in the novel, which include depersonalization reflected on all the three women characters, and amnesia that brings miserable lives of two of the characters. After that, the causes of these symptoms are analyzed in this chapter. The causes cover the historical, emotional and psychological elements. What on earth makes their tragedies happen is their being unable to communicate with each. What is talked about in this chapter paves the way for the following chapter about how to help these characters out of their dilemma.Chapter Three is devoted to the tactics of the characters handling trauma. They all choose writing, as it is the most effective way expressing themselves. By writing down their life stories and their true feelings, they finally lead their way out of trauma. Some of them also try outpouring which also works well. Based on their recovery, the significance is discussed in this part. The emotional resonance of the three generations, Amy Tan's own emotional need to express her feelings of terrible experience with her mother, and the significance to both American and Chinese culture are considered and discussed in this chapter.Chapter Four analyzes the aesthetic features of trauma theory briefly. The sense of reality is helpful for the readers to have a better understanding of the background of the novel and of the characters, which also reveals the implied reason of the characters suffering from trauma. Trauma fiction attracts the readers with its own tragic beauty of trauma, and autobiographical writing in trauma fiction serves for the readers and the authors as well.To conclude, by writing the life experience between her mother and her, Amy Tan get reconciled with her mother in the end. This thesis hopes to contribute something new to the research of Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter and attract more attention to the trauma study in literature. Trauma theory and literature therapy provide the readers with a new way to understand the great literary works.