Conformity And Continuation

Over the past three decades, there has been a rapid development in Chinese American Literature. Among all the Chinese American writers, Maxine Hong Kingston is perhaps the most prestigious one. Published in 1976, her first book The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts was an immediate success. It became a bestseller and received a National Book Critic's Award for Nonfiction. Critics have drawn on diverse contemporary theoretical perspectives, such as feminist, postmodernist and cultural aspects, to approach it. As to its theme, representative comments mainly refer to the following aspects, ranging from mystical Orientalism, patriarchal oppression of women in China, silence and coming to voice, identity formation to mother-daughter relationship. However, till now, there are few papers discussing its theme in terms of Bildungsroman.The term Bildungsroman originated in Germany during the late 18th century and has since become one of the major narrative genres in European and Anglo-American literature. It is characterized by the growth, education and the development of a character both in the world and ultimately within himself and charts the protagonist's actual or metaphorical journey from youth to maturity. The theme of Bilbung usually covers school year, journey, love, and identity formationIn The Woman Warrior, Kingston reveals the Bildung of a Chinese American girl through uncovering the repressed stories of her family and of the larger American society. With its portrayal of the young girl's journey from silence to full voice, from confused ethnicity to a clear identity as a Chinese American, from childhood to young adulthood, The Woman Warrior can be read as a female Bildungsroman, a novel that foregrounds the theme of coming of age, which contributes significantly to the study of the Bildungsroman. However, Kingston also revises the traditional Bildungsroman and brings fresh air to the norm of the genre. Therefore, this thesis tries to approach The Woman Warrior from the perspective of Bildungsroman and see how Kingston's revision serves as a conformity and continuation of the traditional Bildungsroman. The thesis is composed of three parts Part one is theoretical bases, mainly introducing the term Bildungsroman and female Bildungsroman in terms of origination, definition, characteristics and contents, which paves the way for the following analysis.Part two focuses on the theme of Bildung based on the German Bildungsroman from the aspects of mentors of Bildung and ceremonies of Bildung. As positive mentors, Brave Orchid and Fa Mu Lan are brave and strong-willed, and set good examples for the protagonist. Three other women- No Name Aunt, Moon Orchid, and the silent sixth-grader—are either passive, silent or lack of agency, representing what Maxine must try to avoid becoming. At last, under the guidance of mentors, the protagonist breaks up the racial and sexual discrimination and finishes her development from silence to a master storyteller.Part three mainly delineates the theme of Bildung different from the German Bildungsroman. First, in contrast with the traditional Bildungsroman's searching for"fathers", Kingston consciously suspends patrilineage and situates her development in relation to the stories of her female relatives. Second, Kingston's protagonist undergoes an endless process of negotiating different personal, cultural, racial and sexual experiences in The Woman Warrior. This process-oriented narrative pattern contrasts with the traditional definition of the Bildungsroman which, according to Wilhelm Dilthey, emphasizes the final maturity, harmony and unification after various stages of apprenticeship. Kingston stresses the dissonances and conflicts of life and demonstrates that instead of a unified identity, an ethnic woman is engaging in an endless negotiation of her contradictory multiplicity. Third, Kingston juxtaposes narratives of Bildung and anti-Bildung to underline the multiple jeopardy confronted by people of color at every stage of their lives. Their protagonists need to deal with multiple oppressions based on their racial, gender, and class backgrounds. The narrator's nameless aunt, Moon Orchid and the silent girl in The Woman Warrior represent victims of sexism and /or racism.All in all, Kingston's The Woman Warrior can be read as a female Bildungsroman, a novel that foregrounds the theme of coming of age, which has some characteristics with the traditional Bildungsroman in common. However, Kingston also revises the traditional Bidungsroman in her The Woman Warrior. But rather than betrayal, Kingston's revision is an innovation and regeneration of the Bildungsroman. It serves as a soil to highlight the norm of the genre. Thus the divergence from the traditional Bildungsroman in The Woman Warrior is as much a continuation of the Bildungsroman as the conformity to the standard plot.