An Analysis Of Cultural Identity In Take Me Home From The Diasporic Perspective

Since the 1990 s,diaspora criticism has gained momentum,which addresses the social,economic and cultural exchanges between the diasporas and indigenous people.Diaspora theorists call into focus cultural identities of these immigrants.Actually the diasporas gradually construct their hybrid and fluid identities in communication with indigenous people.For diasporic writers,they are usually concerned about problems in cultural exchanges and explore a spiritual home from two perspectives.Take Brian Leung for an example,he creates the novel Take Me Home with an acute diasporic consciousness.This thesis is designed to analyze Wing's journey to construct his cultural identity.As a Chinese immigrant,Wing was originally gripped by cultural anxiety and then reconstructed his identity through contact with an American woman,Addie.In the end,Wing longed for hybrid identity.This thesis demonstrates that it is difficult for diasporas to discover their spiritual home because they are always in the quest for it.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One mainly introduces Brian Leung and his novel Take Me Home.Chapter Two briefly explains a mixed theoretical bag,subsuming Edward Said's Orientalism,Homi Bhabha's hybridity and Stuart Hall's cultural identity.Chapter Three analyzes Wing's original identity crisis.Chapter Four concentrates on Wing's journey to reconstruct his cultural identity in his interaction with Addie.This part also shows Wing's hope for hybrid cultural identity.Chapter Five concludes that in the context of globalization and post-colonialism,even though it is hard for diasporas to construct their cultural identity,they should remain hopeful for the hybrid identity characterized as fluid,heterogeneous and multiple.