From Estrangement To Identification

As one of the most influential and controversial contemporary Chinese American female writers, Maxine Hong Kingston has long been paid much attention to in the literary critical circle. Her masterpiece The Woman Warrior - Memoirs of a Girl among Ghosts is an instant success in both commercial and academic circles. Of all the Chinese American works, The Woman Warrior is perhaps most widely commented on and highly spoken of. American professors put it as a necessary book in study of American literature, female studies, ethnology and anthropology. The success of The Woman Warrior proves that Chinese American literature, with its own characteristics, has gradually won its name in the realm of American literature, and arouses wide scholastic attention from the mainstream American society.At present scholars both at home and abroad have studied The Woman Warrior from such perspectives as feminism, post colonialism and culture studies, but they seldom focus on the hidden description of mother-daughter relationship. This thesis attempts to interpret the mother-daughter relationship through textual analysis, explain in detail the process of and the reasons for the daughter's estrangement from and identification with her mother, and make contributions to the newly arising Chinese American literature of matrilineage.The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction of the author and her major works. Besides, critical responses to the novel will be generalized.Chapter 2 is the summary of Chinese American literature of matrilineage. First, the overview of Chinese American literature of matrilineage will give us a general idea of its development. Then Mother-Daughter relationship first in Chinese American literature of matrilineage and later in The Woman Warrior will be analyzed in detail.Chapter 3 discusses the daughter's estrangement from her mother in terms of supporter of Chinese patriarchy, lack of mutual communication, and rebel of "world of ghost", that is, the white-dominated society.Chapter 4 goes into the daughter's identification with her mother. The daughter's awareness of identity-loss in the "world of ghost" prompts her to pursue the balance between mother's "talk stories" of China and the "world of ghost". And finally, the daughter has got strength from her mother through inheriting and developing mother's "talk stories".Chapter 5 is the conclusion of mother-daughter relationship from estrangement to identification. A summary will be made and prospects of research on mother—daughter relationship will be put forward.