Trauma And The Establishment Of Chinese American Female Identity In The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston is one of the most unique and controversial novelists in Chinese American and Asia American literary circle. Kingston is a pioneer of Chinese American fiction. Her autobiography The Woman Warrior Memoirs of Girlhood Among Ghosts is her first work. As a Chinese American female writer, she is not only included by American mainstream culture, but also rejected by Chinese American male writers. However, she never bends the neck to the white hegemonic discourse. Kingston's self-confidence and self-reliance have deeply influenced the Chinese American women for generation after generation, who are still battling for their rights and equality.Research on Chinese American literature has become more and more popular at abroad and home, and already become one of most important topics in Chinese American and Asia American literary circle. Though this research is growing steadily since the early 1990s in China, the fact remains that it is still falling behind the Western. Her articles and herself research papers take up a considerable part in the research field of Chinese American literature, and their critical theories employed are various. However, in Mainland China, most scholar use feminist criticism and cross-cultural connotation in research about Kingston's articles, but theme of her work represented still calls for a systematic study. American literature has always emphasized the issue of identity, and this topic has become a heated topic in Chinese American literature since the past decade. So, this thesis mainly discusses how Kingston establishes her Chinese American female identity from the perspective of trauma and feminism theory. American literature has always emphasized the issue of identity. The pursuit of their own identity is the major concern of The Woman Warrior. Kingston, as a Chinese American woman, explores the issue of how to establish her identity in this novel.This paper consistent of five chapters including an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter one is a brief introduction to the writer and her major works. The second chapter discuss of the research at abroad and home. with a survey of the concepts of trauma and cultural trauma and its development followed. Chapter three mainly discusses the Chinese American female's loss of their own identity. It is the collective trauma of racism and sex discrimination that put them into an identity crisis. The fourth chapter deals with Kingston's working-through of the trauma and establishment of the Chinese American female identity. The last chapter summarizes the whole article. The purpose of Kingston's autobiography is to call on the Chinese American females extricate themselves from the memory of cultural trauma, and construct the sense of national pride.