On “Specter” Identity Of Jack In Steer Toward Rock Under Ethical Literaty Criticism

Fae Myenne Ng is a promising new talent in Chinese American literary world in the 1990 s.Her Steer Toward Rock,published in 2008,won the American Book Award.Set in the Chinese Confession Program and created on the personal experience of Ng’s father,this novel exposes Chinese Americans’ collective trauma brought by McCarthyism which is nominally extreme anticommunism from 1956 to 1965.Based on Jacques Derrida’s hauntology and Nie Zhenzhao’s ethical literary criticism,this thesis tries to study the presentation and historical factors of Jack’s “specter” identity as well as the way Jack deals with that identity,aiming to provide ethnic group with the thinking to face with “specter” identity and solve identity crisis.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One introduces Fae Myenne Ng and Steer Toward Rock,summaries the literary reviews at home and abroad,presents the theoretical framework,and states the possibility of this study and the thesis statement.Chapter Two studies the presentation of Jack’s “specter” identity in ethical confusion.From the two aspects of ethical confusion,including changes of ethical identity and disorder of ethical order,this chapter discusses the spectrality and loneliness of Jack.Chapter Three analyzes the historical factors of Jack’s “specter” identity in specific ethical environment.It explores the reasons,development and effects of the Chinese Exclusion Acts and the Chinese Confession Program,exposing that they are important reasons of paper families and racist root of Jack’s “specter” identity.Chapter Four discusses how Jack banishes his “specter” identity by ethical selections.This chapter explains the two ethical selections made by Jack,including confession and naturalization.Confession does not help Jack solve identity crisis,but naturalization helps Jack get rid of the trauma of the loss of identity,break up the binary opposition and construct the ethical identity of Chinese American.Chapter Five is the conclusion.By studying Jack’s “specter” identity in this novel,this thesis points out ways of how Chinese immigrants define their identity in foreign land and strengthens the ethical values and practical significance in studying Asian American literature.