Hybridity And The Third Space:Identity Construction In Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston, who published her first novel The Woman Warrior in 1976, is a well-known Chinese American writer. By telling the different experiences of Chinese American women in the book, she aroused the attention to Chinese American culture from the western society successfully.As a Chinese American, Maxine Hong Kingston faces with dual oppression from different cultures. How to get out of the dilemma and establish the identity is an important issue to her. Kingston constructed the third space where Chinese and American cultures get reconciliation. In this space, the identity crisis is resolved and a new hybrid identity is created.From oppression to confusion, from conflicts to fusion, the writer expresses her complicated emotion when encountering difficulties. The thesis is expected to display the dynamic process of seeking for the new identity step by step. By analyzing the emotion course during the process of establishing identity, the thesis elaborates the meanings of constructing the third space.The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is introduction which includes a brief introduction of Maxine Hong Kingston and her achievements in novels. Besides, the general studies at home and abroad of the work are made in this chapter.Chapter two introduces the basic theory of the study-"hybridity" strategy and "the third space" theory which are put forward by Homi K. Bhabha.Chapter three describes different oppression that Chinese Americans women face with in family and society. In addition, the conflicts caused by cultural difference are exposed in the thesis. A change of emotion is presented with the narrator’s struggling against oppression.Chapter four comes to a conclusion based on chapter three that the writer creates an effective way to get rid of the identity crisis. It focuses on the construction of the new identity and the meanings of it. From the perspective of hybridity, the writer integrates two cultures to build up the third space where the identity of Chinese American is set up. The thesis analyzes the features of hybrid identity which represents the reconciliation of cultural conflicts. It offers Chinese Americans the chance to strive for their equal rights and the solution to ethnic conflicts around the world.In the conclusion part, the thesis reviews the main contents of the thesis and examines the meaning of the writing.