Stylistic Analysis Of Cultural Hybridity In Maxine Hong Kingston's Novels

Stylistics, in the restricted sense, is to apply the theory and methodology of modern linguistics to study the style of the literary text.(Leech, 1969:1) By researching the literary language from different levels with systematic methods, it aims to interpret the aesthetic value and explore the thematic significance of literary text in a more objective way. Stylistic analysis starts with the description of linguistic facts, relates them to interpretation and to their artistic function. As far as the method concerned, stylistic analysis does not restrict itself to a specific model, but makes choices according to the actual need of analysis.Maxine Hong Kingston is one of the leading figures among contemporary Chinese American writers. Her adroit writing technique, profound theme and rich cultural imagination always draw attention to scholars at home and abroad. Meanwhile, as a representative of ethnic minority writers, she explores cultural hybridity in her works, which is manifested not only in content but also in form. Based on a close-reading of her three masterpieces(The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey), this thesis does a stylistic analysis on the cultural hybridity in her novels from the aspects of foregrounded linguistic features, narrative style and contextual factors.Chapter One gives a general introduction of the study, including the purpose and significance of the study, the methods which are applied in the research, mainly concerning the procedure of stylistic analysis and data collection, and the basic organization of the thesis. Chapter Two is a literature review. It compares different definitions of style and stylistics, gives an overview of Maxine Hong Kingston's artistic achievements, and reviews the previous domestic and foreign studies on stylistics, Kingston's novels, and those studies relavant to cultural hybridity in her works with the cultural hybridity being the focus of the stylistic analysis in this thesis. Chapter Three chiefly deals with the theoretical foundation of stylistic analysis in fiction. It touches on the analytical levels from both linguistic criterion and literary criterion. As for fiction, apart from the traditional model of stylistic analysis that is primarily done from linguistic description, textual level and contextual level, other distinctive aspects that are of great stylistic significance in the appreciation of aesthetic value in fiction are taken into consideration such as narrative point of view, speech and thought presentation and contextual factors. Chapter Four analyses the stylistic features related to cultural hybridity in Kingston's three novels from different linguistic levels. In the aspect of linguistic description, the hybridity is illustrated in the deviation of sound patterns, vocabulary and grammar which are a mixture of Cantonese, Chinese and Chinese pidgins English. These deviations show the hybrid features in the language use of Kingston's works. In respect of style of narration, with the analysis of the narrative point of view, discourse presentation and tone of narration, Kingston's novels are considered as a mixture of realism, modernism and postmodernism. Her novels bear the stylistic characteristics of realism in the aspects of representation of place, time, and dialogue, and employ the writing techniques of modernist style and postmodernism, but they represent the postmodernism theme of erasing the division between different cultures. The appearance of more than two narrators in each of the novels and the ironic tone of narration strengthen the hybridity of Kingston's novels. In terms of contextual factors, the social reality of racism, the background of the author, and the interpretation of historical events all exert a great impact on the cultural hybridity of the novels. The racial problems always exist in the novels and cultural hybridity provides an effective way to construct a world where people of different races and cultures can well coexist. The living environment, education background, and the hybrid identity of the author contribute to the plots, structure, language details, and theme of cultural hybridity of the three novels. Meanwhile, the interpretation of historical events has a great influence on characters' view of the multicultural society. With the integrated study of the lexical features and rhetorical devices, cultural hybridity embodies in every aspect of social life. Chapter Five is the conclusion part. It summarizes the major findings of the research and points out the limitations of the thesis as well as the suggestions for further research.