The Study Of Male Images In Maxine Hong Kingstong's Novels

This thesis is a systematic study of Maxine Hong Kingston's characterization of male characters in her novels, in a comparison with that of the other contemporary Chinese American novelists. Kingston's major novels are examined closely one by one in an attempt to find a clue to the development of them, the internal relations among them and their significance in the Chinese American literature.There are four parts in this thesis.The first part is the introduction. It begins with the brief review of the traditional stereotyped characterization of Chinese Americans, particularly the male ones, and of how the Chinese American writers, especially Maxine Hong Kingston, have confronted the stereotypes. Also presented in this part is the research status of the Kingston and her male characterization, the methodology and the main content of this paper as well as the intention and the significance of this research project. The second part examines the male characters in China Men, who are characterized as the images of the forefathers of Chinese Americans. In this part, Kingston's male characterization is explored by the use of textual analysis, combined with the observation of relevant historical documents and the comparison between Kingston and two other Chinese American writers, Frank Chin and Shown Wong.The third part focuses on a new male image of Chinese Americans, Wittman Ah Sing, the protagonist both of Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, and of The Fifth Book of Peace. This part makes the analysis of Ah Sing's name, his opinions of identity, his resistance to the internalization, and, the changes of his attitude towards war and family. In this part, besides the textual analysis, the biographical study is taken to examine Ah Sing's'new aspects'and the significance of this character.The last part summarizes the whole project and emphasizes the viewpoint of this paper. A thorough survey of this paper shows that the male images in Kingston's major novels are closely related and together they present a clear, developing clue, greatly contributing to the vivid, unprejudiced and convincing representations of Chinese Americans.