"transgression", Analysis Of Cultural Identity In Gish Jen Narrative Works

Gish Jen is an unique writer who have gained much attention among many Chinese American writers in recent years, she has special explanation about her own identity. This thesis focused on her four works Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, Who is the Irish, The Love Wife, analyzed her live strategy and identity position among many kinds of culture through in-depth reading of these works. Meanwhile, through putting Gish Jen and her works into the background of Chinese American literature's development, compared with other Chinese American writers and represent their identity angle's transformation. Through detailed comparison and analysis, this thesis draw the following conclusion: early Chinese American writer immersed in the missing for China, their roots are deeply taken in the Chinese tradition, later there were writers who completely submitted to American culture and were eager to abandon their Chinese traits, or completely denied American culture, while Gish Jen's work transcend the"cultural identification"and the circumscription of so-called"center and verge", take no consideration for ethnic issues, she supposed that her own identity can transform freely and there is no superiority or inferiority among different identity. In one sense,"cross-border"is the important label of her identity position.