Feminist, Post-Colonial And Post-Colonial Feminist Interpretation Of The Symbolic Meaning Of "Ghost" In The Woman Warrior

The Woman Warrior won immediate success upon its publication in 1976. Maxine Hong Kingston ,the author of this book, took Chinese customs, legends, fables and literary quotation as basic writing materials, melding with her own rich imaginations, based on the real background of twenty century's American society, created an outstanding work with special writing techniques and unusual content. It became an instant bestseller and secured a place in the top ten non-fiction books of the decade. This book brings great reputation to the author, meanwhile establishes her statue as a Chinese-American author with deep and long influential on American literature.The first part of this thesis makes a survey of Maxine Hong Kingston's life and her works. The second part makes a brief summary about the research on The Woman Warrior among the academic circles both at home and abroad.Looking through the studies about The Woman Warrior, we can find that although the research achievements are plentiful, up till now, there is still hard to find a relatively complete and systematic comment on the symbolic meaning of ghosts in The Woman Warrior. Therefore, from this perspective, this thesis attempts to apply post-colonial criticism, feminist criticism and post-colonial feminist criticism to this work, hoping to deepen the research on Maxine Hong Kingston and The Woman Warrior. The post-colonial criticism is a hotly discussed topic in academic circles. Its combination with feminist criticism has given birth to a new theory of criticism: post-colonial feminist criticism. The third part investigates the cultural background of Feminist, colonialism, and Post-colonial feminist criticism. From the subtitle of the Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, the fourth part analyzes the symbolic meaning of ghost in The Woman Warrior. The ghosts which playing roles through this book represent not only the male oppression of females, but also the racial discrimination and oppression existing in American society. Through telling the stories about the ghosts, Kingston expresses her determination to fight against gender oppression and racial discrimination as well as achieve her proper identity as a Chinese American woman.