A Gothic Characteristics Analysis Of Amy Tan’s Novels

There is no doubt that “Gothic” has been controversial from its appearance, esp, inthe field of literature, because of its extraordinary, unusual, mysterious and grotesquedescription, thus leads to a heated discussion and an ignored position of the literaryworks which created by using it. In contrast, it has been playing a profound impact onEuropean and American literature because of the above factors. We can find remarkablerepercussions of the Gothic characteristics in many writers’ works, includingShakespeare, Dickens, Hawthorne, Faulkner, Poe and Stephen King and so on.As one of the excellent representatives of Chinese American writers, Amy Tan’snovel has been a huge success in the world. Based on the oriental culture, Amy Tanmainly described the relationships between mothers and daughters, the conflictsbetween the cultures and nations, the complex characters in different ethnic groups; sheopened a door to the magical world to the readers in a mysterious, bizarre and horribleway and provided a discussible chance to the critics also.In consideration of the special effects of the Gothic technique, the constantimportant role of the Chinese American literature and the shortage of the research ofAmy Tan’s novels, this paper attempts to analysize and find out the Gothic factorsapplied in Amy Tan’s works in a literary way. What this paper wants to achieve is thatwe can appreciate the artistic and aesthetic value of her novels through the analysis oftextual contents, the writing style and the writing language with Gothic characteristics.In order to achieve this goal, the article will take a descriptive method to interpret thenovels under the guide of the theories of Hermeneutics, Narratology and Receptionaesthetics. Therefore, we may advance a reasonable and feasible exploration and studyof the Chinese American writers’ works and “Gothic” in literature.