| Amy Tan has been one of the most famous Chinese American writers in Americaand even in the west since the publication of The Joy Luck Club in1989. She is alsoconsidered to be the leading writer who brings Chinese American literature intomainstream American literature. Tan’s exploration of identity reflects a special but alsocommon phenomenon in immigrant families, and also inspires people from differentcultural backgrounds to think about how to communicate and get along well with themulticultural America.The Bonesetter’s Daughter is the fourth world-famous novel which is the mostautographical and moving. The expression of mother-daughter relationship in the novel isalso the deepest. Being the same as that of the first three novels, the theme of TheBonesetter’s Daughter is still about the conflicts between the mother and the daughter.The novel ends with mother-daughter reconciliation with varying cultural backgrounds.In the novel, Amy Tan once again shows her concern with cultural identity and growingmature thinking on identity.As an important topic of cultural research in postcolonial context, cultural identityreceives wide attention from both Chinese and Chinese American literature areas. StuartHall，an expert in intercultural communication thinks that identity is both variable andstatic and can be divided into the fixed factors and the changing factors. One’s race，origin，and color make up the basis of the individual action and they are all unchangeable.The researches on identity are from different kinds of points, and the research from thepoint of postcolonial feminism is limited.This thesis tries to analyze the cultural identity of women in The Bonesetter’sDaughter on the basis of the postcolonial feminism. It also shows how Chineseimmigrants deal with cultural conflicts, how to carry forward excellent Chinese culturaltradition and take in American culture, and how to construct new identity of their ownethnic group in the white-centered and multicultural American society. Besides, thisthesis analyzes women’s marginal position and identity crisis on the basis of “other”theory. Through the exploration of Chinese Americans’ reluctance, feeling of loss,confusion and thinking on themselves, this thesis exposes the reality of gradually learning about seeing self and reconstructing self from a unique visual angle in theintercultural daily life.This thesis is made up of three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion.The introduction consists of a general review of Amy Tan and her major works, anintroduction to the writing background of The bonesetter’s Daughter as well as home andabroad research and the significance of this paper.The body is divided into three chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction to postcolonial feminism. It analyzes theforming and development of postcolonial feminism and main contents of postcolonialfeminism reflected in the Bonesetter’s Daughter, namely the criticism on hegemonism,patriarchy and white women, which are applied in analysis of identities of the heroines.Chapter Two analyzes the cause, embodiments and result of identity loss. First, itexplores the marginal position of the mother and the daughter and the social and historyroots. Then it illustrates that Chinese American women not only face the “other” positionin ethnic, but also in sex and culture. Finally they are trapped in the predicament, namelythe feeling of displacement both as Chinese and as American.Chapter Three explores the process of reconstructing identity: mother-daughterreconciliation, silence breaking, root seeking and finally identity rebuilding.The conclusion part concludes that the identity reconstruction of Chinese Americanwomen is not through denying Chinese culture and pursues American culture or stickingto Chinese traditional culture and rejects American culture, but through organiccombination of both cultures to form a new identity which means that Chinese Americanwomen can not only sticks to Chinese traditional culture but also take in the essence ofAmerican culture. |
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