| Amy Tan is a prominent figure in the contemporary American literary world who has drawn much attention from mainstream critics at home as well as critics abroad. Her first novel The Joy Luck Club, which was published in 1989 and stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for nine months, won her several prestigious literary awards including the National Book Award for Fiction and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award.The Joy Luck Club contains sixteen interwoven stories about the conflicts between Chinese immigrant mothers and their America-born daughters. This thesis is an attempt at interpreting The Joy Luck Club from the perspective of Orientalism through analyzing the Orientalism and the anti-Orientalism in the novel. It is composed of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion.The introduction gives a brief account of Tan's life and career and a survey of the criticism on The Joy Luck Club. It also provides a glimpse into the text and states the purpose and importance of this study.Chapter One introduces Edward Said and his Orientalism and gives a brief account of the history of Chinese American immigrants and of how their stereotypes were formed historically. In Said's eyes, the Occident has been creating the Orient from their own perspective without considering the reality of their creation. As one of the major minority groups in America, the Chinese have been orientalized and stereotyped for a long time.Chapter Two examines the Orientalism in The Joy Luck Club. Trying to meet the standards of the white society, Amy Tan participates in the dominant American discourse of orientalizing China and the Chinese. She depicts China as a backward and impoverished Other and uses someparticular elements in traditional Chinese culture to attract more readers.Chapter Three discusses the anti-Orientalism in The Joy Luck Club. As a Chinese American, Amy Tan has a special feeling about China. Her sentiments about China make her use her writing as a weapon to fight against Orientalism. She breaks the silent stereotype of the Chinese and sets up a strong image of the Chinese mother. More important, she calls for the co-existence of the two worlds, the East and the West, which is coincident with Said's good wish.The conclusion makes a summary of the thesis and restates its main points. |
