A New Historical Interpretation Of Steer Toward Rock By Fae Myenne Ng

As an outstanding Chinese American female writer, Fae Myenne Ng has been awarded with multiple great prizes. In the year of 1993, Ng published her fist book Bone, this book got highly praised by the critics in literary field after its publication.15 years later, Ng published her second full-length novel, Steer Toward Rock. This book has won the American Book Award in the year of 2008.At home or abroad, there are not so many studies about Steer Toward Rock. Most of them often focus on the theme of the plot, male image, psychological trauma of protagonists or cultural study of the novel. Compared with her first novel, Bone, this new work has not caught much attention from both critics and researches. In this novel, the hero, Jack Moon Szeto, leaved hometown for a new life in America as a "paper son", and suffered a lot to become a real American citizen. Through the description of his life in America, author again showed us the history of Chinese Confession Program in the 1950s. The historical meanings in the novel will not only help to analyze the novel under the perspective of New Historicism, but also help readers get to know the history of Chinese Confession Program which many Chinese Americans dare not to tell.New Historicism "challenges the boundary between the realm of history and literature, breaks the traditional binary opposition of history and literature". They hold the opinion that literature and history are inter-textual and they regard literature as a part of history. This thesis analysis Steer Toward Rock from the perspective of New Historicism, it is hoped that this thesis can provide readers a broader and more comprehensive perspective to acquire a better understanding about this masterpiece, and enrich the practical value of the theory of New Historicism. Firstly, the thesis re-interprets the marginalized disadvantaged stories of some characters in the novel, strives for the right of those marginalized Chinese Americans, and shows the true lives of these marginalized individuals, which echoes the view of New Historicism that history should be all about common people. Secondly, according to the proposition of Textuality of History, history is recorded in various texts, there is no one text can expose the truth of the history completely and objectively. Comparing the historical events recorded in some other Chinese American literary books with those recorded in this novel, will help us get a deeper meaning of the work, and we can have a better and more comprehensive understanding of the truth of the history. Thirdly, under the concept of Historicity of Texts, the thesis will focus on the influence of Ng’s life experience and society as well as the historical and cultural context of the work after its publication. To prove the effect of these factors, the function of Steer Toward Rock in society and history, would be evaluated.The main purpose of the thesis is to find out the hidden meaning of Steer Toward Rock by analyzing it from the perspective of New Historicism. Analyzing this kind of Chinese American literary work from the view of New Historicism will of great value for the Chinese Americans descendants to know more about the miserable history of the first generation immigrants, the history which is different from the one recorded by the authority or even be distorted and forgotten. It will also help to re-shape the historical consciousness of Chinese American descendants. This novel is also a kind of source material, they can learn a lot about China from it and get to know her better. Last, the author hopes that the thesis will be useful for readers to study both the relationships between text and history, between text and individuals and to have a better understanding of this novel from the perspective of New Historicism.