A Study Of Cultural Identity Construction In Joy Kogawa's Work Obasan

Joy Nozomi Kogawa(1935-)is a famous second-generation Japanese Canadian novelist,poet and social activist.Influenced by her double ethnic cultural backgrounds,the themes of Kogawa's literary productions linger over conflicts and complexity.The semi-autobiographical novel Obasan is Kogawa's best-known work published in 1981 and becomes the first novel exploring the Japanese Canadian people's internment during World War ??.This thesis intends to adopt Stuart Hall's theory of cultural identity and Gayatri C.Spivak's theory of the Other to interpret this novel.It focuses on the emergence of cultural identity crisis,the construction of single identity and the construction of Naomi's hybrid identity presented in Obasan.The thesis can be divided into five parts.Chapter one is an introduction which gives an elaborate account of Joy Kogawa's personal experience,her writing career,representative works and her writing style.Then it narrates the main plot of Obasan and expounds the research objectives and significance of this thesis.Chapter two focuses on literature review.This part summarizes the research achievements and academic trends of Obasan in recent years,including international studies and domestic studies on this novel.At the end of this chapter,a brief comment is made on the main perspectives involved of these critics.Then it points out that the thesis aims at studying Kogawa's works from the perspective of cultural identity.Chapter three demonstrates the theoretical framework of this thesis which consists of two segments.The first part introduces Stuart Hall and his main academic achievements.Besides,it analyzes the creating background,basic concepts,main arguments,the significance of cultural identity theory.The second part discusses the connotations of Gayatri C.Spivak's theory of the Other.Chapter four is the main body which contains three parts.The main characters in the novel include: Ayako Obasan,Uncle Isamu,Aunt Emily,Brother Stephen and Naomi Nakane.Part one elaborates the emergence of cultural identity crisis related to three generations of Japanese Canadians.Part two analyzes five main characters' struggle to search for their single cultural identities.Confronted with the identity crisis,the three generations of immigrants have adopted different attitudes and approaches to seek and construct their own identities: the first generation,represented by Ayako Obasan and Uncle Isamu,reject Western culture and adhere to their own cultural tradition;the second generation,represented by Aunt Emily,actively appeals to her Canadian citizenship and civil rights but negatively alienates herself from her inherent Japanese culture;the third generation,of young immigrants,who is divided into two categories: one,represented by Brother Stephen,is voluntarily assimilated by the white and completely abandons his indigenous Japanese ties of blood;the other,represented by Naomi Nakane,feels difficult to make a choice between two cultures,which leads to the loss of identity.Part three mainly discusses the construction of Naomi's hybrid identity.After failing to get rid of the label “Other” through the construction of a single cultural identity,Naomi Nakane,a third-generation of young immigrants,also the narrator of Obasan who differs from the older generations,begins to correct the understandings of multicultural ecology in Canada,to become adapted to it,and to gradually accept her fluid,heterogeneous,ever-constructing and hybrid Japanese Canadian identity.Chapter five is a conclusion of the whole thesis.First of all,the thesis restates that the essentialist and dualistic view of cultural identity sticks to the principle of integrating singularity and stability with cultural identity.This exclusive nature is one of the root reasons leading to cultural hegemony,trauma and identity crisis.Meanwhile,the paper argues that the concept of dynamic and hybrid construction of cultural identity provides a possibility for the harmonious coexistence among different nations and cultures,which makes “Japaneseness” and “Canadianness”reach balance to the maximum.At the very last,it briefly lists some findings and limitations.