The Survival Of Marginal Subject

Lan Samantha Chang(1965-),Director of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop,is one of the significant Chinese American writers after the 1990 s.Her works have appeared in The Best American Short Stories more than once and won a series of honors,such as California Book Silver Award,Los Angeles Times Book Award and so on.This thesis takes the novella Hunger,five short stories and the novel Inheritance as the research object and explores the survival of the Chinese American marginal subjects.The works depict the survival dilemma of the Chinese American marginal subjects in the cross-cultural environment,portray their struggle to surpass the environment in which they live,and reflects Chang's attention to marginalized groups.In the light of Tarasti's existential semiotics,this thesis analyzes the struggles and conflicts of the Chinese American marginal subjects from three dimensions,namely,moi,soi(the social environment)and transcendence.According to existential semiotics,an individual needs to break through the resistance from the social environment so as to achieve transcendence.Also it puts the individual and the environment in the process of transcendence,and provides the individual with the direction of transcendence.There are six chapters in the thesis.Chapter One introduces the current researches of Chang and her works at home and abroad,and the significance of the thesis.Chapter Two elaborates on Eero Tarasti's existential semiotics,including the background,major concepts and significance of the theory.Chapter Three analyzes the survival of the protagonists of Hunger in the cross-cultural context of China and America.The protagonist Tian exhibits anxious personality,while his wife Min shows split personality.Confronted with the unsatisfying social environment,they obtain self-satisfaction and transcendence through substitutes.Tian realizes the establishment of his status in America through the substitute of his daughter.Min makes up for the regrets in reality through the substitution of the dream and the narration of �spirit�.Chapter Four discusses the survival of descendants of Chinese Americans in Chinese cultural symbols in five short stories.Faced with the alien traditional Chinese cultural environment and customs,they express perplexed and rebellious personalities.After experiencing setbacks and growing up,they resort to symbols to return to the spiritual homeland to seek comfort.Chapter Five focuses on the protagonists' survival in the historicalenvironment of China in Inheritance.In the face of the turbulent Chinese historical environment in the 20 th century,the protagonists manifest complex and multifaceted personalities.In the end,the complete transcendence is achieved by the narrator Hong's reflection on self in history.Chapter Six summarizes the main contents and major findings of the thesis.Based on this,it points out the significance of Chang's writing to the Chinese American marginal subjects.Through the aforementioned analysis,from Hunger to the five short stories and to Inheritance,Chang's novels provide the Chinese American marginal subjects with progressive ways to transcend the imperfections of the environment where they live.The complete transcendence lies in acceptance,forgiveness and love for the unsatisfying reality,which will enlighten the survival of marginal subjects in the current situation of globalization.