Women's Monologue: Amy Tan's Subversion Of The Male-centered Writing Tradition

Amy Tan is a prominent Chinese-American woman writer. Her works win her great fame not only in America, but also in China and many other countries. Amy Tan's works are characterized by her focus on Chinese-American women--the mother-daughter relationship, their pursuit of identity as well as women's friendship and sisterhood. Every story is a women's monologue which articulates women's voices. The other feature of Tan's novels is the absence and silence of father as well as the subversion of the traditional images of men in male-centered writings. In traditional male-centered writings, men appear to be heroic, brave and manly while in Amy Tan's novels, men are either silent, or cowardly, or lacking masculinity. Moreover, they are the oppressors who cause women's tragedies.This thesis studies Amy Tan's female-centered writing and her subversion of the male-centered writing tradition in her novels by using mainly feminist theory. First, this thesis studies the mother-daughter relationship, women's pursuit of selfhood and sisterhood to illustrate that Tan's novels are female-centered. Second, this thesis studies men's images in Tan's novels to prove that Amy Tan's writings are subversions of the male-centered writing tradition.The thesis includes three parts: introduction, the main body and conclusion. The main body contains three chapters.Chapter One introduces Amy Tan's female-centered writing as well as the theories applied in this thesis: feminist theory and the matrilineal literary tradition.Chapter Two focuses on the contents of Amy Tan's female-centered writing: the mother-daughter relationship, the process of women's pursuit of subjectivity and sisterhood. These themes show Tan's concern of Chinese-American women and their experiences and prove that Tan's novels are women-centered.Chapter Three analyzes Amy Tan's subversion of the male-centered writing which includes the absence and silence of father in her novels and the subversion of men's traditional images.In Tan's novels, women's experiences and voices are the main concern whereas men as a group are silent and their images are quite opposite from men's heroic and masculine images in the male-centered writings. Tan's novels are women's monologues and subversion of the male-centered writing tradition.