A Post-Colonial Feminist Approach To Construction Of Women's Identity In Toni Morrison's Sula And Kingston's The Woman Warrior

Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston are the most distinguished ethnic women writers in America. In spite of their different historical and cultural backgrounds, both of them are positioned as a "dual outsider" by the mainstream culture and the patriarchic society. Therefore, the construction of their identity becomes a prominent and permanent theme of their works.On the basis of the post-colonial feminist approach, this thesis puts emphasis on the anatomy and analysis of the ethnic females'construction of identity through the comparison of Toni Morrison's Sula and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior from the two perspectives---cultural identity and gender identity.The whole thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter I gives a brief introduction to the life and works of the two writers and presents a brief scanning of post-colonial feminist approach. Chapter II is an exploration of ethnic women's construction of cultural identity. First of all, this part studies the loss of ethnic women's cultural identity caused by the multiple oppressions from the mainstream society. Then it explores the important role of motherhood exerted in the daughter's construction of cultural identity in the two works. Chapter III analyzes ethnic females'gender crisis and the construction of gender identity. Based on the anatomy of female characters in the two works, this part sums up three phases of women's longing for seeking their identities, and intending to explore the tough course of ethnic women in America in the quest and construction for the self under the double oppressions. Chapter IV draws a conclusion. It offers some viewpoints about the comparison of the two works and points out the meaning of studying it. Through the analysis and comparison of the two works, the thesis highlights the two authors'special viewpoints on ethnic female identity. This is the great contribution they have made to the development of ethnic American literature.