An Analysis Of The Characters' Cultural Identity Of Typical American From Post-Colonial Perspective

As a prominent Asian-American writer, Gish Jen has been compared to the notable female writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan in the late twentieth century. Till now she has published three novels and a collection of short stories which are Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, Love Wife and Who's Irish?. Her works are well received by most Americans and have appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times, The New Yorker and Los Angeles Times and other American Media. Jen's witty language and special point of view draw a lot of attention from the public readers and critics.With the publication of Typical American in 1991, Gish Jen has been held as an important ethic writer in the literary realm of Asian American life. It chronicles Ralph's rise and fall in business, as well as the Chang family's immersion in American culture. Jen is critically acclaimed for her distinctive portrayal of the immigrant experience and her treatment of the complexities of pursuing the"American dream"in Typical AmericanThis thesis is composed of six parts including an introduction and conclusion. In the first part, there are three points including the brief introduction of Gish Jen's life, her masterpiece Typical American, and literary review in China and aboard. Though Typical American was well received by the public, we can scarcely see the interpretation from the perspective of Postcolonialism. For diasporic Chinese, they always experience the puzzle that how to define and locate themselves. Therefore, this thesis attempts to analyze the protagonists'cultural identity from the perspective of Postcolonialism. Chapter One introduces the theory on which the paper is based, including the brief introduction of the theory of postcolonialism as well as some postcolonial concepts and viewpoints which include Said's Orientalism, Homi Bhabha's Hybridity and Third Space.Chapter Two discusses the Changs'identity crisis in the American mainstream society from the perspective of Orientalism. At first, being traditional Chinese, they stick to their root culture and maintain their Chinese identity while under the strong influence of the American mainstream culture, they gradually change their attitudes toward America and strive for the recognition of the mainstream society. However, no matter how hard they try to integrate into the American mainstream society even when they obtain certain social status, the family members of the Chang are still regarded as"alien"or"other"in the America society because their appearances are different from the dominant population. In order to integrate into the American society, their ethnic consciousness is weakening simultaneously so they gradually lost their traditional Chinese identity. At the same time, the racial discrimination from the white society makes them hardly find their positions. Consequently, they are puzzled about where they should belong to. The reality has pushed the Changs'into a dilemma.Chapter Three concentrates on the process of the Changs'construction of their hybrid identities in Third Space. After a series of irrational assimilation, they come to realize that it's impossible to maintain a pure cultural identity for Chinese Americans. They should take advantage of both Chinese traditional culture and American mainstream culture and locate their identities in the Third Space. Their cultural identity is not fixed but formed in the dynamic process of the dialogue between two kinds of cultures. Their hybrid identity can be reflected in the complicated and new views of marriage and family.The last part serves as a conclusion of the entire thesis. By analyzing the Changs'cultural identity from the perspective of Postcolonialism, Gish Jen expresses his opinions on the location of cultural identity—as immigrant Chinese, to look for a sense of belonging to locate their identity, should neither keep a resisting position by sticking to his home culture nor be assimilated blindly by host country's culture. Instead, absorbing the essence from two kinds of cultures will help Chinese immigrants to construct their meaningful and enduring identities. Under the influence of globalization and multiculturalism in America, it is also an inevitable tendency for Chinese Americans to construct hybrid identity in this social background.