学校编码 :10384 学号 :200404072 分类号 密级 UDC 硕士学位论文 A Voice of Their Own: Reading Amy Tan s The Bonesetter s Daughter from the Point of View of Third World Feminism 她们自己的声音 : 从第三世界女性主义视角解读 谭恩美的 接骨师之女 蔡婷婷 指导教师姓名 : 张龙海副教授 专业名称 : 外国语言学及应用语言学 论文提交日期 :2007 年 4 月 论文答辩时间 :2007 年 学位授予日期 :2007 年 月 月 答辩委员会主席 : 评阅人 : 200 年月
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Synopsis Synopsis Amy Tan, a representative of Chinese American writers, is famed all over the world for delineating the mother-daughter relationship and exploring how to bridge the gap between Chinese immigrant mothers and Americanized daughters. In her works, cultural conflict, generational gap and emotional disturbance always appeal to a wide circle of readers. In 2001, Amy Tan published The Bonesetter s Daughter, which achieved both popular and critical acclaim. As the most personal novel, it centers on the relationship between mothers and daughters again, depicting the emotional experience of three generations in one maternal lineage. The thesis, from the perspective of Third World feminism, explores that Amy Tan strives for seeking women s effaced voice and highlights the way in which Chinese and Chinese American women articulate their inner voices and express their needs. It is mainly divided into four parts. Chapter One briefly summarizes Third World feminism and Amy Tan s literary achievement. Chapter Two illustrates that the three female characters---precious Auntie, LuLing and Ruth, break silence through constructing their female subjectivities in different contexts. Chapter Three focuses on Amy Tan s writing strategies. In The Bonesetter s Daughter, Tan s writing skill--- quilting implies the interweaving of female narrative voice, talk-story and mother tongue. The metaphorical quilting can be traced back to her preceding novels, The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God s Wife, and The Hundred Secret Senses. It is used to reflect women s sensibility and spirit. Chapter Four analyzes the interrelation between The Bonesetter s Daughter and Amy Tan s family history. With the combination of her own living background, Amy Tan presents Ruth s growing process so as to chart a strenuous but inspiring journey for tens of thousands of Chinese American women who are often at a loss of how to define themselves in a doubly-marginalized situation. Key Words: articulate their inner voices; female subjectivity; emotional experience; quilting ; family history i
A Voice of Their Own: Reading Amy Tan s The Bonesetter s Daughter from the Point of View of Third World Feminism 摘要 谭恩美是美国华裔作家的代表人物 她擅长写母女关系, 并以其生动的笔墨 探讨母女关系是如何由隔阂走向相互理解 相互扶持而享誉全球 在她的作品中, 文化冲突 母女代沟及情感碰撞一直吸引着广大读者 2001 年, 谭恩美出版了 接 骨师之女, 受到读者和文学界的一致好评 这本自传性极强的作品, 仍然以母女关系为主题, 讲述了女儿 母亲 外婆三代人的情感经历 本篇论文从第三世界女性主义视角出发, 解读了谭恩美的小说 接骨师之女, 发现作家致力于寻找女性失落的声音, 展现中国及美国华裔女性如何勇敢地发出自己的声音, 表达自己的需求 本文共分为四章 第一章简要介绍了第三世界女性主义和谭恩美的文学成就 第二章探讨三个女性人物 宝姨 茹灵和露丝 她们通过在不同语境下构建女性主体性, 来打破静音 第三章着墨于谭恩美的写作策略 在 接骨师之女 中, 缝制百衲被 女性叙事声音 讲古及母语 是从谭恩美的一系列小说 喜福会 灶神之妻 和 灵感女孩 发展而来的 这种写作技巧在小说中被用来书写女性精神, 彰显女性气质 第四章分析 接骨师之女 和作者家族历史在何种意义上密切相关 在文中, 谭恩美结合的自己个人经历, 通过露丝的成长过程, 为千千万万 正处在双重边缘化下茫然不知如何给自己定位的美国华裔女性, 指出了一条虽历经艰辛但充满希望的寻根之路 关键词 : 发出她们自己的声音 ; 女性主体性 ; 情感经历 ; 缝制百衲被 ; 家 族历史
Contents Contents Synopsis...i Introduction.. 1 Chapter One Amy Tan and Third World Feminism 4 1.1 Amy Tan and Her Literary Career....4 1.1.1 Amy Tan s Major Works and Their Critical Reviews..4 1.1.2 Amy Tan and The Bonesetter s Daughter 6 1.2 General Introduction to Third World Feminism..9 1.3 The Bonesetter s Daughter and Third World Feminism...12 Chapter Two Articulating Their Inner Voices..14 2.1 Third World Women s Experience: a Radical Way of Self-definition..14 2.2 A Homogeneous Notion of Chinese and Chinese American Women.16 2.3 Voicing: Constructing Female Subjectivities in Different Contexts..19 2.3.1 Precious Auntie---Revolting against the Patriarchal Society.19 2.3.2 LuLing---Adhering to Chineseness.. 22 2.3.3 Ruth---Reconstructing Double Identities...23 Chapter Three Representation: How to Voice in Marginal Space 27 3.1 Third World Women s Writing Strategies: Exploring the Central Space for Struggle......27 3.2 Amy Tan s Quilting.....28 3.2.1 Female Narrative Voice....30 3.2.2 Talk-story.. 38 iii
A Voice of Their Own: Reading Amy Tan s The Bonesetter s Daughter from the Point of View of Third World Feminism 3.2.3 Mother Tongue.....41 Chapter Four Charting a Journey of Searching for the Roots..45 4.1 The Solidarity between Mothers and Daughters.45 4.2 Amy Tan s Family History and The Bonesetter s Daughter 46 4.3. Ruth s Growing Process....48 Conclusion.... 52 Works Cited......55 Acknowledgements.....58
目录 目录 摘要.... ii 导言.... 1 第一章谭恩美和第三世界女性主义.....4 1.1 谭恩美及其文学生涯.... 4 1.1.1 谭恩美的主要作品及其文学评论......4 1.1.2 谭恩美及其 接骨师之女......6 1.2 第三世界女性主义概要.... 9 1.3 接骨师之女 和第三世界女性主义.......12 第二章发出她们自己的声音.....14 2.1 第三世界妇女的经历 : 自我定义的根本方法...14 2.2 中国及美国华裔女性的同质化现象.....16 2.3 发声 : 在不同语境下构建女性主体性.......19 2.3.1 宝姨 反抗父权社会......19 2.3.2 茹灵 坚持中国性......22 2.3.3 露丝 重构双重属性......23 第三章表征 : 在边缘空间发出声音.....27 3.1 第三世界妇女的书写策略 : 探寻抗争的中心位置...27 3.2 谭恩美的 缝制百衲被.....28 3.2.1 女性叙述声音.... 30 3.2.2 讲古.... 38 v
A Voice of Their Own: Reading Amy Tan s The Bonesetter s Daughter from the Point of View of Third World Feminism 3.2.3 母语.... 41 第四章指引一条寻根之路.....45 4.1 母女之间休戚相连.....45 4.2 谭恩美的家族历史和 接骨师之女.....46 4.3 露丝的成长历程.......48 结语...... 52 参考文献...... 55 致谢........ 58
Introduction Introduction With the development of minority literature, such as, African literature, Jewish literature, etc., more and more readers and critics show their great interest in Chinese American writers and their works with ethnicity, identity and gender. Amy Tan is one of the most significant contemporary Chinese American writers. Her novels receive popular success. She is among the first Chinese American writers who bring Chinese American culture and experience to a wide circle of readers. She is also the first Chinese American writer, possessing a novel which has ever remained on the New York Times best-seller list for nine months. Until now, Amy Tan has already published five novels---the Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter s Daughter, and Saving Fish from Drowning. Amy Tan s fourth novel, The Bonesetter s Daughter is by far her most personal work. It presents the multi-layered story of Ruth Young, her Chinese mother LuLing, and her grandmother Precious Auntie as an exploration of the complex relationship between mothers and daughters. In this novel, Tan discovers her Chinese heritage and explores themes of despair, loss, belonging and memory. What is striking is the voice of each female character. Compared with Tan s first three novels---the Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God s Wife, and The Hundred Secret Senses, Tan s focus in The Bonesetter s Daughter is narrower and more intense: not the octet of characters and narratives in The Joy Luck Club but a single story encompassing a lineage of three women. Through inviting readers to get involved in the emotional experience of three female characters, Tan achieves the purpose of searching for Chinese women s lost voice. In this novel, three female characters have their own stages for speaking out their own voices in a systematic way. Third World feminism emphasizes the heterogeneity of women s image and writing strategies in relation to women of color. The thesis aims to position The 1
A Voice of Their Own: Reading Amy Tan s The Bonesetter s Daughter from the Point of View of Third World Feminism Bonesetter s Daughter in the context of Third World feminist politics. It explores how each female character articulates her own voice in different emotional experience and how Amy Tan develops her own writing skill--- quilting that enables her to counter western stereotypes and effaced voice. What s more, through presenting the mother-daughter relationship in this novel, the soothing voice observed from Chinese mother s love runs through the novel, reemphasizing that despite differences of environment and culture, there is unchanging and deep bond between Chinese mothers and Americanized daughters. Chinese heritage is always in the bones of the Americanized daughter. This thesis can be divided into four chapters: Chapter One introduces Amy Tan s literary achievement and her fourth novel The Bonesetter s Daughter. In order to help readers to have a better understanding of Third World feminism, it briefly summarizes the main points of Third World feminism and how to apply this theory into The Bonesetter s Daughter. Chapter Two, through employing heterogeneity and subjectivity in Third World feminism, explores how Precious Auntie, LuLing and Ruth voice against stereotypes and construct their own subjectivities in different contexts. It reveals silencing or distorting situation of Chinese and Chinese American women in history. Subsequently, heterogeneity and subjectivity in Third World feminism are used to point out the significance of elaborating women s emotional experience as a criterion of self-definition. In the text, Chinese mother, Precious Auntie, challenges the patriarchal society with her wisdom and courage. LuLing, a Chinese immigrant, adheres to her Chineseness in the postcolonial context. As an Americanized daughter, Ruth succeeds in constructing her Chinese American identity. Chapter Three mainly deals with representation. Since many Chinese American female writers have no place in the white world, how to voice is a central site in the Third World women s writing. Through analyzing the writing technique of Amy Tan s four novels, Chapter Three discovers Amy Tan s quilting ---female narrative voice,
Introduction talk-story and mother tongue. Female narrative voice clearly reveals female sensibility in different emotional experience. Talk-story implies women s spirit in the mainstream culture. Mother tongue suggests cultural heritage in a doubly marginalized situation. Chapter Four, with the combination of Tan s background, centers on the wholeness of mothers and daughters. Through Ruth s personal growth, Tan especially charts a strenuous but inspiring journey for many Chinese American women. It could be observed that the solidarity between mothers and daughters serves as the magical power for Ruth s growth. 3
A Voice of Their Own: Reading Amy Tan s The Bonesetter s Daughter from the Point of View of Third World Feminism Chapter One Amy Tan and Third World Feminism 1.1 Amy Tan and Her Literary Career Nowadays, many Chinese American writers, such as, Sui Sin Far, Jade Snow Wong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Louis Chou, Amy Tan, etc. have already earned their places among American writers for they create the engaging Chinese and Chinese American characters. Sui Sin Far becomes one of the first to speak for an Asian-American sensibility that [is] neither Asian nor white American (qtd. in Young 110). With the pride in her Chinese heritage and own experience, Sui Sin Far concentrates on the Chinese in the United States rather than portray exotic and westernalized China. Her Mrs. Spring Fragrance exhibits a type of individuality and Chinese American women s sensibility. Maxine Hong Kingston s writing has the ring of reality and fantasy, in part because she draws the material from a lifetime of documents, and understands Chinese traditions, rituals, and history only from her mother s talk-story. In this book, she explores her individual feminist identity in addition to her ethnicity. The self-liberation of the woman warrior impresses readers with the growing senses of feminism. Among these Chinese American writers, Amy Tan is considered as one of the most significant Chinese American writers. Her works achieves both popular and critical acclaim, and appeals to her largely female readership because of her skill to present the misunderstanding that occurs between women of different generations. Many critics have praised her storytelling as well as her poetic use of language in the exploration of a woman s search for identity. 1.1.1Amy Tan s Major Works and Their Critical Reviews Until now, Amy Tan has already published five novels, including The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen God s Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1985), The Bonesetter s Daughter (2001), Saving Fish from Drowning (2005), two juveniles---the
Chapter One Amy Tan and Third World Feminism Moon Lady (1992), The Chinese Siamese Cat (1994), and some short stories and essays. Tan s novels, mainly focusing on the mother-daughter relationship, often reveal cultural conflict, generational gap and emotional disturbance. However, Tan never simply repeats the same plot. According to Susan Balee in a Philadelphia Inquirer review, although Tan often suggests the same topic---mother-daughter relationship, [novels] don t grow stale with repetition ( Amy Tan ). In this, Tan is perhaps like Jane Austen. After all, [Austen s] details vary from novel to novel, she [finds] new ways to approach and explicate her subject. Tan does the same thing with another archetypal subject, and like Austen, she will enjoy a secular place of her last book ( Amy Tan ). Indeed, each character, especially each female character in her novels has her own emotional experience. Tan, with a feminist view of ethnic Americans, provides readers with different female characters who overcome obstacles in a racist and patriarchal society. The first legendary novel---the Joy Luck Club not only earns her star status in the publishing world for it touches the hearts of millions of readers but also helps her to win numerous awards: such as, the Bay Area Book Reviews Award for fiction, the Commonwealth Club Award, etc.. Many critics praise The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into seventeen languages, including Chinese, as an appealing and thoughtful novel. Nancy Wigston maintains that The Joy Luck Club is a first novel that you keep thinking about, keeping telling your friends about long after you ve finished reading it ( Amy Tan ) in the review of the Toronto Glove and Mail. Dorris placed that book within the realm of true literature, which is writing that makes a difference, that alters the way we understand the world and ourselves, that transcends topicality, and by those criteria, The Joy Luck Club is the real thing ( Amy Tan ). Chinese American critic Pin-chia Feng concludes that moreover, [Tan s] work---which comes more than a dozen years after Maxine Hong Kingston s The Woman Warrior (1976)---has helped to create a renaissance of Chinese American writing ( Amy Tan ). After achieving great success from The Joy Luck Club, Tan 5
A Voice of Their Own: Reading Amy Tan s The Bonesetter s Daughter from the Point of View of Third World Feminism devotes herself to writing. In 1991, Tan published a second novel---the Kitchen God s Wife. By the time of writing this novel, she is adept at delineating human feelings and inserting suspense, sense impressions, and symbolic images. The novel distills the mother-daughter tension to one pair, and wedges the main plot line of daughter Peal Louie Brandt s relationship with her mother Winnie. In order to bridge the gap between mother and daughter, Winnie begins to tell Pearl the whole story about her young womanhood in China. The ending of the text suggests that hope has already been passed as a gift to the younger generation. Reviewer Constance Casey of the San Diego Union applauds the work as a page-turner spanning decades and leaping oceans (qtd. in Snodgrass 94). For most readers, the novel succeeds in offering feminist insight into family alienation and proposing redress through talk-story. In 1995, Tan observed a sisterhood between an Amerasian, Olivia Yee Laguni, and her Chinese half-sister, Kwan Li, and followed the clash between them in the third novel The Hundred Secret Senses. Kwan s experience explains how a person can overcome sorrow by seeing spirits and viewing life as the process. It takes many years for Kwan s sister Olivia to accept wisdom from the past. The novel is confronted with numerous reviews. Gail Caldwell of the Boston Globe acknowledged the author s wisdom and skill at engrossing narration. Penelope Mesic, book editor for the Chicago Tribune, lauded the work s consistency of action and abundant detail (Snodgrass 76-77). From these reviews, the major characteristics of novel can be summarized as its outstanding narrative skill and details of story. Unlike Tan s first two novels, the third novel focuses on spiritualism and realism through Kwan s yin eyes, which become an effective way of strengthening the author s storytelling. 1.1.2 Amy Tan and The Bonesetter s Daughter In 2001, Tan published The Bonesetter s Daughter which she considered as the most personal novel (qtd. in Hull) in the Good Morning, American interview. The
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