A Study Of Mother-Daughter Relations In The Woman Warrior, The Joy Luck Club And Bone From The Perspective Of Homi K. Bhabha’s Theory

Since the publication of the literary works of the Chinese immigration began in1950s, Chinese American literature becomes a significant part of American literature.This thesis selects Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club andFae Myenne Ng’s Bone as the literary texts for my study. These three works not onlyhave a far-reaching influence in the realm of Chinese American, but have a widerecognition and praise in American mainstream. Besides, all of these works haveobtained important awards during the past years.However, as the major theme in the three works, mother-daughter relationship istraditionally considered as a conflict-relation since mothers and daughters separatelyrepresents traditional Chinese culture and dominated American culture. And most of theresearchers mainly follow the clue of mother-daughter’s conflict to the finalreconciliation. This thesis focuses on two problems about the mother-daughter relations.On one hand, the thesis attempts to deconstruct the binary opposition of mother anddaughter and their final cultural reconciliation. It is the different classes they belong tothat construct an invisible wall between them. On the other hand, the thesis tries toexpose the Chinese mothers’ Americaness and American-born daughters’ Chinesenessbased on close reading. Since Chinese mother lived in America for decades, it isimpossible to really keep away from the mainstream culture intact. Chinese mothers’Americanness can be found from their critical inheritance of Chinese traditional culture;and they unconsciously receive and absorb the advantages of American culture duringthe America life. On the contrary, growing up in Chinese families and Chinatown,American-born daughters are also inspired by traditional Chinese culture unconsciously.In summary, this thesis is a study on the motif of mother-daughter relationship in thethree works from the perspective of Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial theory. The whole thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one is a brief introductionto the life and works of the three writers; gives a scanning of Homi Bhabha’s theory andscholarship on mother-daughter motif in three novels. Chapter two is a deconstructionof the binary opposition shown in the motif of mother-daughter relations. First of all, thethesis discovers critics’ misreading of mother-daughter relations after a survey in threeworks. Then, it attempts to deconstruct the binary opposition existed in mother-daughterrelations, and to question the final reconciliation between them. Chapter three exploresthe heterogeneity of mother-daughter relations in three works. The last chapter is aboutthe conclusion of the thesis.