Reconstruction Of Female Identity In Postwar Chinese American Literature

This dissertation aims to study the marginalized identity-making of Chinese American women during the postwar era. As Chinese American women are in a between-world condition and double-marginalized by racism and sexism, they are similar to other ethnic women whose identity-making is full of complexity and fludity. As a result, they choose either to subvert or negotiate in order to find their places in the white-dominant society.There are two contributions in relation to the dissertation topic. Firstly, a juxtaposed study of the three primary texts can help to understand how the postwar daughterly writers provide an alternative site for the subaltern to speak. Secondly, a juxtaposed study of familial identity and national identity can facilitate the formation of multiple identity-making; moreover, the alliance of Chinese American women with the members of ethnic women’s community as well as Chinese American community can be understood. Thus, with two kinds of juxtaposed studies, Chinese American women’s identity can be reconstructed during the postwar era.There are five chapters in the dissertation. In the first chapter, the identity-making of Chinese American women is discussed, and the contribution of the dissertation which means two kinds of juxtaposition has also been figured out. The second chapter is literature review divided into three aspects. Those are, reviews on the identity-making of Chinese American women, their familial identity in relation to the dyadic mother-daughter relationship, and national identity with regard to the differentiated citizenship and the flux Chinese American female cultural forms. The third chapter aims to analyze the familial identity of Chinese American women. With the case studies of three primary texts, the identities of mothers and daughters and their dyadic mother-daughter relationship are deeply analyzed. In the fourth chapter, firstly it illustrates the differentiated citizenship of Chinese American women; next, the community awareness and its related cultural nationalism are also elaborated with authors’ views of the three primary texts. The fifth chapter is the conclusion part.