（英语语言文学专业论文）论《喜福会》中沉默之主题.pdf

descriptive chinese abstract i 中 文 摘 要 中 文 摘 要 在美籍华裔作家中，谭恩美毋庸质疑的是非常具有代表性的一位。随着她四本小 说的畅销，即喜福会 （1989） 、 灶神之妻 （1991） 、 百种秘密感觉 （1995） 、 接 骨师之女 （2001） ，她不仅受到了评论家的高度赞扬，而且还赢得了读者的广泛喜爱。 其中她的处女作喜福会一出版便受到了热情洋溢的评价，一连数月刊登在纽约时报 畅销书一栏中，而且为谭恩美赢得了几项大奖。 在文学批评领域中，对文学作品中沉默主题的研究越来越成为批评家们关注的一 个焦点。在谭恩美的喜福会中无处不弥漫着沉默这一现象。小说讲述的是四对中国 母亲与美国女儿沉默背后的冲突与摩擦。 本文试图运用福柯的话语理论和权力理论来分 析小说中沉默这一主题，并揭示了隐藏在沉默之后的矛盾冲突：母女之间的冲突、女性 在父权制社会中与男性的冲突、中国传统文化和美国文化的冲突。本文首先分析了中国 母亲在美国女儿面前所处的沉默状态。母亲们生在中国长在中国，深受中国传统儒家文 化的影响，讲着一口结结巴巴的洋泾浜英语；而女儿们生在美国长在美国，接受的是地 道的美国教育，崇尚自由和个人主义，说着一口地道的美式英语。于是，母女间不可避 免地出现了误解、冲突，最终导致了沉默。接着本文又进一步地分析了女性在男权社会 中的沉默。 通过分析中国母亲在中国传统父权制社会中所遭受的压迫和美国女儿们在婚 姻中仍处于附属、 次要和被控制的地位来阐述华裔女性在中美两种文化当中都是处于沉 默地位这一现状。然后本文又继续从文化的角度来分析了沉默这一主题。在中国文化遭 遇美国文化时，中国文化是处于“他者”的地位的。文化的范畴是广泛的，本文是从中 国食文化和中国传统信仰这两个方面来论述中国文化是怎样被置于沉默状态的。 最后本 文分析了打破沉默的可能性， 并展示了小说中华裔女性寻求打破沉默的种种途径和最终 走向发声的过程。 论文最后得出的结论是华裔女性通过讲故事的叙述方式，重建其主体性，重塑自 我文化身份，勇于发出她们自己的声音，这样才能打破并解决两代人之间的沉默、性别 的沉默和文化的沉默，才能建立和谐的关系，最终才能走进喜与福的境地。 关键词：谭恩美关键词：谭恩美; 喜福会喜福会; 沉默沉默; 讲故事讲故事; 主体性主体性; 文化身份文化身份 english abstract ii abstract among all the chinese american writers, amy tan undoubtedly occupies a representative position. with her four bestsellers, the joy luck club(1989), the kitchen gods wife(1991), the hundred secret senses(1995) and the bonesetters daughter(2001) respectively，she not only enjoys the high compliments from the critics but also gains great popularity among common readers. her first novel the joy luck club stayed on the new york times bestseller for nearly a year and won her several prestigious awards. in the field of literary criticism, the study to the theme of silence in literary works becomes an increasing focus of feminist attention. silence pervades tans the joy luck club. the novel narrates about the conflicts and frictions behind the silence between four pairs of chinese mothers and american daughters. silence is articulate and it does not mean nothing is said. it can serve as a nonverbal expression in many conditions as in spoken communication. this thesis will apply michel foucaults discourse and power theory to analyze the theme of silence, and to reveal the conflicts behind the silence between mothers and daughters, women and patriarchy, chinese traditional culture and american culture. the first chapter analyzes the silence of chinese mothers and america-born daughters from three parts: the silence of language, culture value and communication between mothers and daughters. born, educated in china the mothers are deeply influenced by the traditional chinese culture. they speak broken english or chinese english. by contrast, the daughters, born and educated in the united states, are influenced by the american culture. they cherish freedom and individualism and speak perfect american english. so inevitably conflicts and tension arise between them and lead to silence eventually. chapter ii concerns the silence of women under patriarchy in this novel. there are two kinds of silence: the silence of women in chinese traditional patriarchal culture and the silence of women in american patriarchal culture by analyzing chapter three will be intended to reveal the culture conflicts behind the silence in the joy luck club, namely, the silence of chinese culture under american mainstream culture, especially for chinese food and chinese traditional beliefs. and the chapter will try to answer the question: how chinese culture is put in “other” position when it meets with english abstract iii american mainstream culture. since silence is pernicious and destructive for women in this novel, it should be broken. chapter iv tries to find the ways sought by the women to break the silence throughout the whole book. the thesis proposes that, only by story-telling, reconstructing female subjectivity and reshaping cultural identity, can chinese american women speak out voices of their own, can break the silence between genders, and cultures, and can the conflicts behind the silence be solved in the end, can a harmonious relationship be maintained; ultimately, can women live in a joy luck condition. key words: amy tan; the joy luck club; silence; story-telling; subjectivity; identity 湘潭大学湘潭大学 学位论文原创性声明学位论文原创性声明 本人郑重声明：所呈交的论文是本人在导师的指导下独立进行研究所取得的 研究成果。除了文中特别加以标注引用的内容外，本论文不包含任何其他个人或 集体已经发表或撰写的成果作品。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体，均 已在文中以明确方式标明。本人完全意识到本声明的法律后果由本人承担。 作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解学校有关保留、使用学位论文的规定，同意学校保 留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和电子版，允许论文被查阅和借 阅。本人授权湘潭大学可以将本学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行 检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存和汇编本学位论文。 涉密论文按学校规定处理。 作者签名： 日期： 年 月 日 导师签名： 日期： 年 月 日 introduction 1 introduction chinese american literature has long been discriminated by the american literary canon. early chinese american literature is a silent history. women and members of racial minorities have increasingly sworn off the silence imposed upon them by the dominant culture. yet silence should also be given its due. many asian americans, in their attempts to dispel the stereotype of the quiet and submissive oriental, have either repressed or denied an important component of their heritagethe use of nonverbal expression. (cheung, 1994:113) real chinese american literary history can be said to begin with two eurasian sisters, edith and winnifred eaton, who emigrated with their parents to the united states. (guerin, labor, morgan, reesman, and willingham, 2004:268) edith eatons stories (sui sin fars, 1865- 1914), who is the first chinese woman writer in north america, were published under the title mrs. spring fragrance (1912) which represented chinese as fully developed, three-dimensional people. she first used the phrase “chinese american” and said that chinese americans were the pioneers of america; she affirmed the great contribution they had made towards the early construction of america. frank chin and his colleagues have praised sui as being “one of the first to speak for an asian-american sensibility that was neither asian nor white american ” (yin, 2000:87). the later chinese american women writers get a spiritual support and a creative inspiration from her. given the silencing of chinese women as witnessed by foot-binding, slavery, and ritual suicideit is ironic that chinese american women writers have managed to produce an astonishing array of literary works, far outdistancing the male writers. (guerin, labor, morgan, reesman, and willingham, 2004:268) of all the chinese american women writers, amy tan might not be the most prominent, but she is undoubtedly the most popular and prolific one. amy tan was born in 1952 in oakland, california to chinese immigrants daisy and john. tan grew up surrounded by influences from both chinese and american cultures. her father, a minister and electrical engineer, and her mother, a vocational nurse, were forced to leave behind three other daughters in china when they immigrated to the united states. they didnt see the girls until 1978. between tans 15th and 16th birthdays, the familys burden of introduction 2 loss intensified with the deaths of both her older brother and her father from brain tumors. her mother fled from the site of this emotional devastation to switzerland with her remaining children. this grief, experienced so early in life, later becomes a recurring element in tans novels. almost all of tans four novels are highly autobiographical writings. tan mixes her own life experiences with her fictional writing in which can be seen the images of her mother and herself. in 1989, amy tan published her first novel, the joy luck club. thanks to its success, tan had been regarded as one of the most highly acclaimed writers of chinese ancestry. then, tan published the kitchen gods wife (1991), the hundred secret senses (1995), the bonesetters daughter (2001). remaining on the new york times bestseller list for nearly a year after publication, amy tans the joy luck club was short-listed for the national book award for fiction and nominated for the national book critics circle award. (huntley, 1998:11-12) this novel reveals the long-ignored reality of chinese americans lives, and exposes many aspects of life in general. it traces a group of four chinese immigrant womens lives and relations with their daughters through several years of development. the women and their daughters live in san francisco, where the mothers still meet in the “joy luck club” they formed in 1949 to play mah-jong and to tell each other their stories of life in china; their daughters vignettes alternate with the mothers as the novel proceeds, and both the conflicts between the generations and the problems they share are built up in this modern tragicomedy. critics have said that tans works are not necessarily “chinese” in nature, but are instead stories with universal themes (generation gaps, cultural conflicts, sexism, racism etc.) that have added dimension of being told through narrators that are constantly searching for a balance between their chinese heritage and american lifestyles. they praise tans striding metaphors and her wry wit. the diverse voices in the joy luck club demonstrate tans ability to capture both the fractured english of chinese mothers and the colloquial english of their america-born daughters. orville schell comments, “in the hands of amy tan, who has a wonderful eye for what is telling, a fine ear for dialogue, a deep empathy for her subject matter and a guilelessly straightforward way of writing, they sing with a rare fidelity and introduction 3 beauty. she has written a jewel of a book” (schell, 1989:28). tans multiplicity of first-person narratives does paint a broader canvas of two generations. facing the gap between chinese and american cultures, tan places more emphasis on the chinese identity and heritage. through vividly dramatic individual narratives, tan provides a sound basis for a developing tradition of chinese american womens writing. tans special accomplishment in her works not only portrays the stories between mothers and daughters, but also shows us the deepest affections of mothers and daughters. among the criticisms, there are three categories: talk-stories and narratives, cultural conflicts and identities, mother-daughter relationship. first of all, tan is a gifted storyteller who reaches across cultures and generations and conveys such important message as: “then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. how to lose your innocence but not your hope”(tan, 1989:239). tans talk-stories are, by nature, dialogical. these talk-stories want to be heard, understood and answered. stephen souris uses the reader-response approach to analyze the dialogicity of tans books. lo peishu applies mikhail bakhtins theory of heteroglossia, polyphony and dialogicity in tans books and argues that, with her multi-perspectival form, tan allows a plurality of narrators to speak from their own points of view and thus to present a whole formed by the interaction of several consciousness. tan is reviewed from two different poles. some critics recognize her talented accomplishments and her subtle representations of chinese american women. but some insist on tans betrayal and distortion of chinese culture. both in aiiieeeee! : an anthology of asian american writers and the big aiiieeeee: an anthology of chinese american and japanese american literature, frank chin and the editors are highly critical of what they perceive as tans exoticization of china and the chinese for a white mainstream audience. they think tans book resurrects racist, imperialist images of an inscrutably corrupt east; of fragile, violated, lotus-blossom women; and of heartless chinese men who oppress them. sau-ling cynthia wong points out that in tans stories, she connotes that china is a savage place, where only suffering and misfortune can be found. many critics, too, note that tans chinese american women represent sexual and racial stereotypes of american society. however, there are still more criticisms to make of tans stories and praise tans talents. introduction 4 secondly, as for cultural conflicts and identities, many critics such as shirley geok-lin lim and amy ling have proposed the idea of a unified asian american identity, contending that chinese american women are caught “between worlds.” they need to examine and recover their identities. they are like a tribe of the diaspora. they do not have a secure idea of a “homeland” to go back to. in his essays, hu yaming concentrates on the issues of chinese american immigrants new recognition of their cultural identities. he looks at the dilemma of the first generation chinese american mothers construction of identity and indicates their transformation and maturation through bicultural clashes and integration. the new generation chinese american has new recognitions to their cultural identities from exclusion to interesting and curious to their minority national culture. cheng aimin also discusses the cultural conflicts. zhang ruihua explores how tans chinese american women solve the existing plight of being between worlds and different cultures through “chinese mah-jong”. xu ben talks about the relationships among ethnicity, self and memory. tans chinese american women can be interpreted as taking a new and alternative direction. cultural identities and self-identities are not a fixed essence and lose their significance in capitalist society, reality has dissolved into fragments and subjects are in the process of disappearing. lastly, as for the issue of mother-daughter relationship, some critics have investigated the mother-daughter relationship in tans chinese american women. wendy ann ho has described her own multiple positioning in identity politics analysis of mother-daughter relationship in tans chinese american women. she says, “tan empowers not only their mothers but also themselves and their racial-ethnic communities through a psychic and oral-literary birthing that keeps alive the intimate, ever-changing record of tragedies, resistance, and joy luck for all people”(ho, 1996:338-39). gloria shen explores the connection between the narrative strategy employed in the joy luck club and the relationships between the chinese mothers and their america-born daughters. scrutinizing the difference between the mothers in china and the daughters in america, she ferrets out the contradiction between them in their thoughts and actions as seen in their relationships with their daughters. reconciliation occurs when mothers and daughters realize the unbreakable blood bonds between them. introduction 5 in china, some researchers have studied such male characters as chinese males living in chinese conventional society and white males in american society in the joy luck club. they examine the male characters oppressive conducts and females responses. they see how chinese mothers break the silence by relating their cruel experiences in china to empower their daughters. cheng aimin uses “the mother image” to interpret the chinese culture and tradition, the medium of history and memory, and the bridge of past and present. through the role of the mother, the novel reflects the profound cultural significance of the mother-daughter relationship. xia xiaoyan focuses on the perspectives of linguistic and cultural conflicts to probe into the reasons for the predicament faced by the mothers and daughters. in examining the continuity and variation of the mother-daughter relationship, two themes are presented of sense of loss and search for identity. liu cuilan analyzes the mother-daughter relationship in detail by presenting the conflicts, communication and integration between the two generations and cultures. their conflicts are mainly caused by cultural differences. nevertheless, what cannot be broken is their emotional bonding, which drives them to make efforts towards communication and reconciliation. “throughout the 1970s, silence became an increasing focus of feminist attention” (hedges and fishkin, 1994:4). in the field of literary criticism, many critics have exhaustive studies to the theme of silence in literary works. in addition, feminists interpret the voice and silence systematically from the perspective of sex. silence is articulate and it does not mean nothing is said. it can serve as a nonverbal expression in many conditions as in spoken communication. a thing having been spoken out is usual significance. in the theoretical- philosophical realm, many thinkers have in their own ways valorized speechlessness, affirmed the articulation of silence and regarded silence as a strategy of discourse. michel foucault points out in the history of sexuality: silence itselfthe things one declines to say, or is forbidden speakersis less the absolute limit of discourse, the other side from which it is separated by a strict boundary, than an element that functions alongside the things said, with them and in relation to them within over-all strategies. there is no binary division to be made introduction 6 between what one says and what one does not say . there is not one but many silences, and they are an integral part of the strategies that underlie and permeate discourse. (foucault, 1978:21) silence cannot only cause cross-cultural misunderstandings, but also make a person become unnoticed or invisible to others. ones voice proves the existence of oneself. in this sense, one losing her discourse doesnt exist in the world as subjectivity has disappeared. in english, silence is often the opposite of speech, language, or expression. the chinese meaning for silence, similarly, is antonymous to noise, motion, and commotion. in the united states silence is generally looked upon as passive; in china it trad