An Analysis Of The Bonesetter’s Daughter From The Perspective Of Post-colonialism

Amy Tan is one of the second generations of excellent Chinese-American writersat present. Her masterpiece The Joy Luck Club caused an immediate sensation as soonas it was published. In the process of American literature development, Amy Tan hasalready been listed in the classic writers in American literary history, and manyscholars treat her and her works as their subject. The Bonesetter’s Daughter is anothersuccess of Amy Tan. This novel involves the painful growth of three mother-daughtergenerations. By using her extraordinary thoughts as well as her excellent writing skills,she expresses her attitude and viewpoint towards the complicated communicationbetween Chinese and American cultures with the help of the topic of mother-daughterrelationships.And this thesis contains the following parts:The introductory report contains the development of Chinese American literature,the introduction of Amy Tan and her work The Bonesetter’s Daughter. The lastsubsection relates to a brief review of the study of The Bonesetter’s Daughter both athome and abroad and offers the significance of this study.Chapter two narrates the methodology of this study which is based on Said’sOther and Homi Bhabha’s the Third Space to explore the meaning of selfreconstruction in this novel. Namely, this study analyzes this novel from theperspective of Post-colonialism.Chapter three analyzes the Other image of both daughter and mother in terms ofethnicity, gender and language, thus exploring the crisis of the lost identity they arefacing.Chapter four illustrates how Ruth pursues and transcends the past in reality toreconstruct her identity by shifting between China and America, from the past to thepresent. Chapter five presents the ultimate harmonies that Ruth achieves. For one thing,she builds new relationship with her mother; for another thing, she changes herattitudes towards the relationship with her lover Art, and leads a harmonious andhappy life from then on. Meanwhile, she finds the coexistent status of Chinese andAmerican cultures--the Third Space.The former analyses contribute to the conclusion that Ruth, on behalf of all thesecond generation of Chinese immigrants, succeeds in changing the image Other ofChinese Americans in the eye of white people and most westerners and becoming anindependent Chinese American with bilingual cultures and new self-identity.