（英语语言文学专业论文）从他者到歌者——《女勇士》中的女性形象分析.pdf

descriptive chinese abstract i 摘摘 要要 女勇士一段鬼影憧憧下的少女回忆 (the woman warrior: memories of a girlhood among ghosts )是汤亭亭（maxine hong kingston）出版的第一部作品，也是 她的成名作及代表作，在美国当代文学占有重要位置。 女勇士在社会性别，种族和 少数民族等问题上受到特别的关注，对其也有各方面的评论。但是迄今为止，从整体分 析小说中出现的不同女性形象及这些女性形象所表现出的生存状态和主体意识的研究 尚不多见。 本文以女性主义理论和后殖民理论为先导，通过对女勇士的细读，剖析了全书 描述的六位女性，根据女性生存状态和主体意识在小说中的不同表现形式，揭示出美籍 华裔妇女在现代父权制社会和美国社会中的生存状态和抗争过程， 为总体的女性解放提 供一种借鉴。 首先，汤亭亭通过“无名女人”与“月姨”两个悲剧形象揭示了女性对男权社会无 声的反抗。虽然受到男权社会的无情迫害和摧残，无名女人和月姨已经开始从长期失语 混沌状态中觉醒，走向自我言说。然后，汤亭亭通过女勇士中两个带传奇色彩的“双 性同体”的形象： “花木兰”与“母亲”来挑战父权制社会，达到对性别二元对立的消 解。最后，在小说中的“我”与蔡琰身上，汤亭亭揭示了完善女性主体存在的解决方法， 即积极的参与，包括不同性别的参与和不同文化的参与。 通过对女勇士中女性形象的分析，我们可以看出，汤亭亭通过不同时期不同的 女性形象揭示了女性对自身主体存在意识的发展及最终女性获得真正解放的方法。首 先， 女性的主体存在表现为一种历时性的存在。 女性从最初的沉默的 “他者” 过渡到 “双 性同体”的人格，最后发展为一种开放的“歌者”人格，女性的主体存在始终呈现为一 个不断变化、持续开放的过程。其次，女性的主体存在还表现为一种共时性的存在。女 性无论是作为“他者” 、 “双性同体” ，还是“歌者” ，其存在方式都与其周围的人或物密 切相关。它必须有男性和其他事物的共同参与才能完成。因此，女性存在的完善最终将 会推动人类社会的总体进步。 关键词：后殖民主义；他者；女性主义；双性同体；汤亭亭关键词：后殖民主义；他者；女性主义；双性同体；汤亭亭 english abstract ii abstract the woman warrior: memories of a girlhood among ghosts, the award-winning and representative work, and also the first published work by maxine hong kingston, holds an important position in the circle of american contemporary literature. as a classic work in the field of multi-culturalism, it has been paid close attention to in terms of sex, race and minority. it also invites criticism of all aspects. however, up to now comprehensive studies exploring the different women characters and the existence condition and subject consciousness are not very common. based on the theories of feminism and post colonialism as well as a close study on the six women characters in the woman warrior, this thesis unveils the process during which the chinese american women have maintained themselves and struggled in the modern patriarchal society as well as in american society and provides a reference for the overall woman emancipation. first, kingston reproduces an image of voiceless resistance against patriarchal society via two tragic characters, “no name woman” and “moon orchid”. although persecuted and tortured mercilessly, they wake up from a long-term aphasia and begin self-articulation. next, kingston challenges the patriarchal society via two legendary character of androgyny, “hua mu lan” and “mother” to eradicate sexual confrontation. eventually, maxine hong kingston manifests a perfect condition for a female being, i.e., an active participation in both sex and different culture. through an analysis into the women characters, we may conclude that kingston finds an ultimate solution for woman emancipation. first, as a diachronical existence, women have evolved from “the other”, then to “androgyny” and finally to an open “singer”. their existence tends to be a process of consistent changes and openings. besides, as a synchronical existence, whether as an “other,” “androgyny” or a “singer”, women are closely correlated with everything around her. it definitely involves the participation of men and other things. in all, the perfection of female existence will ultimately enhance the overall progress of human society. key words：post-colonialism; the other; feminism; androgyny；kingston 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 0.1 1 introduction it is estimated that maxine hong kingston is one of the most anthologized writers among any living american writer. she is read by more american college students than any other living author. her works include the woman warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts (1976), winning the national book critics circle award in nonfiction; china men (1980) winning the american book award and a runner-up for the pulitzer prize, and tripmaster monkey: his fake book (1989), winning the p.e.n. usa west award in fiction. besides all these, she is also awarded a national humanities medal by president clinton in 1997. she is categorized as feminist, though asian american women look to her as a model, and find themselves in her tales and seek her out with sycophantic regularity. she is considered as a most outstanding representative of chinese american literature or a cultural spokeswoman. struggling against stereotypes, she has become something of a type herself. she is such a controversial character that so many researches and studies have been focusing on her, but it is acknowledged that maxine hong kingston has artistically set up the new tradition of chinese american literature as an intermediary between chinese american history and mainstream assumptions, between chinese folk tales and american popular culture, between ancestral experiences and her own youth. 0.1 maxine hong kingston as a female chinese american writer born in california, america, maxine hong kinston is a second generation chinese, whose family emigrated from rural guangdong province, china. she is the first of six american-born children. her parents, tom and ying lan hong, had had two children in china before they came to america. her mother was trained as a midwife in to keung school of midwifery in canton. her father had been brought up as a scholar and taught in his village of sun woi, near canton. tom left china for america in 1924, but finding no work for a poet or calligrapher, he took a job in a laundry. tom was swindled out of his share of the laundry, but ying lan joined him in 1939 in new york city, and they then moved to stockton where tom had been offered a job in a gambling house. maxine was named after a lucky blond gambler introduction 0.2 2 who frequented his work. kingstons first language was say yup, a dialect of cantonese. she grew up in a community surrounded by other immigrants from her fathers village, and the storytelling she heard as a child influenced her later writing. by the age of nine, her progress in english enabled her to write poems in her new language, and though she was a gifted storyteller like her mother, she preferred the solitary task of writing. an extremely bright student, she won eleven scholarships that allowed her to attend the university of california at berkeley. kinston began as an engineering major, but she soon switched to english literature. she received her b.a. degree in 1962 and her teaching certificate in 1965. as she began to write at the early age of nine years old, writing became the solution to her life in america. she adapted her life story in her first published book the woman warrior, which combined talk-stories and fictional accounts to explore the growing-up experience of chinese americans through the eyes of women in a family. kingston published several other books after the woman warrior, such as china men (1980), hawaii one summer: 1978 (1987), through the black curtain (1987), tripmaster monkey: his fake book (1989), and several articles and periodical publications. for maxine hong kingston, writing has been central in her life. “my writing is an ongoing function, like breathing or eating,” she explains. “i have this habit of writing things down anything.” and then some of it falls into place as in these two books (the woman warrior and china men). the woman warrior, china men and tripmaster monkey: his fake book met with high critical acclaim. kinston continued to explore the dynamics in chinese american society and the search for the identity of chinese americans. in 1980, a honolulu buddhist sect claimed kinston as a “living treasure of hawaii”, “an honor usually reserved for someone twice of her age” (skenazy et al 1998). in addition, she received a national humanities medal and was introduced into the american academy of arts and sciences and received an honorary doctor degree in 1992. 0.2 literature review of maxine hong kingston studies in light of the strong reactions to her work, it cannot be denied that maxine hong kingston has had an incredibly powerful influence not only on asian american literature, but certainly on american literature in the last decades of the twentieth century. the proof of her works incontrovertible assimilation into the canon of american literature is the fact that introduction 0.2 3 maxine hong kingston has earned herself a place in the columbia literary history of the united states. one reviewer, michael t. malloy, describes the book as having an exotic setting but dealing with the same subjects as mainstream american feminist literature, specifically the “me and mom” genre. other reviewers are surprised by its fresh subject matter and style, and they sing the praises of this poetic, fierce, delicate, original novel. in addition, the modern language association has published approaches to teaching maxine hong kingstons the woman warrior, a collection of essays outlining and describing strategies of the first major work, edited by shirley geck-lin lim(1991). this anthology of essays is a clear signal of the woman warriors canonical status in american classrooms. and finally, in 1999, saul-ling cynthica wongs maxine hong kingstons the woman warrior: a casebook was released by the university of california press, further demonstrating the centrality of kingstons book to twentieth-century american literature. through her work and by her example, kingston has inspired a younger generation of ethnic writers to excavate their family stories and raise their voice in celebration of those stories. hawaii-born poet garrett hongo says that china men was, for him, a revelation that the lives of his ancestors were worth writing about: “if it werent for maxine hong kingston, i wouldnt have my imaginative life. it was a great moment reading china men. that book released human feeling for me. it humanized me; it released my own stories for me.” another poet, marilyn chin, discovered the woman warrior while she was an undergraduate in massachusettes, and later told kinston in an interview that the book “gave us permission to go on” in chins case, “going on” means choosing a literary career, a somewhat unusual choice for an asian american in the late 1970s, when so many were studying science, engineering, or medicine. because of its complexity and early prominence, the woman warrior aroused immediate controversy. kingston herself criticized many mainstream reviewers for characterizing the book in terms of stereotypes about oriental exoticness or inscrutability, failing to recognize it as american, or supposing the book pretended to speak for all chinese americans. some early chinese readers were jarred by the books adaptations of traditional chinese stories, her kid disclosure of family secrets, her criticism of her mother, and the narrators provocative, often nave generalizations about chinese. the books defenders reply to these concerns by introduction 0.3 4 stressing kingstons artistic intentions in reinventing chinese stories for an american contest, the conciliating resolution of her book, and the authors use of an off-nave narrative persona to dramatize the process of evaluating seemingly anti-chinese perceptions. more recently, mainland chinese writers who feel cut off from their own cultural heritage have hailed kingstons work as part of the new chinese “roots literature” in which contemporary writers seek to return to their cultural roots. kingstons most hostile critics have been asian american writers offended by kingstons feminist alterations to traditional stories, her early emphasis on the patriarchal and misogynous aspects of chinese american culture, her perceived portrait of chinese americans as alien and difficult to understand, and in some cases unmanly and the fact that she published the woman warrior and china men as nonfiction. in particular, frank chin has attacked the entire genre of autobiography as based on a christian tradition of confession, which to him implies conversion, self-exposure, and self-abasement inappropriate for asian americans addressing mainstream readers. these criticisms have been seriously considered and ultimately rejected by a host of scholars, as well as by kingston, in one of the most heated debates in asian american cultural studies. 0.3 significance of the topic in literary circles, a real classical work is always controversial and allows different interpretations from different points of view. maxine hone kingston has been regarded as a pivotal representative in the field of chinese american literature. as a milestone of chinese american literature, the woman warrior has established its unique position in american literature. not only because it is a ten-year bestseller and most welcomed by its readers, but also because it reveals the long-ignored reality of chinese americans lives. maxine hong kingston succeeds in being recognized by the general reader, and her book the woman warrior resonates among the readers of different tastes. the book has been recognized as not only as a story of historical truth, but also of experiential authenticity. because it is regarded as an outstanding representative of chinese american literature, kingstons first success, the woman warrior is worthy of our reconsideration. today, the study of chinese american literature has become hot, popular with scholars in the united introduction 0.4 5 states. more and more scholars in china are also showing great interest in this field. the study of chinese american literature helps us to peer into the history of chinese immigrations and to better understand shadowy images of chinese americans, their history, their struggles to survive in a foreign country and their contributions to their new country. the woman warrior is rated as an outstanding forerunner and representative of chinese american literature because of its major influence and significance. this thesis explores the stories in the book, to comprehend how this book discloses the realities of the life of chinese american women and chinese americans as a whole, to understand the meaning of “woman warrior” and the implications of the unusual subtitle “memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts”. though “this book is still quite welcomed by men” (horton 1998), it is obvious that this book shows a strong feminist inclination. kingston herself said, “the power in the woman warrior has so much to do with a feminist vision and feminist anger, and so it became a coherent work without the mens stories” (bonetti 1998) 35. she gives us a vivid and detailed account in the five stories about how chinese women have suffered from gender oppression and how repressive the life of chinese americans in a country known for its democracy and freedom is. growing up in chinatown as a chinese american, kingston unfolds for her readers the pictures of what happened to her female relatives and herself. exploring the chinese american experience is one of the common characteristics of all chinese american literature. this important theme would underline the whole book to reflect why kingston names the book “the woman warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts”. the thesis will analyze the gender oppression and racial discrimination portrayed in each story and on each woman. women in a patriarchal society and colored people in a white-dominated society are usually referred to usthe other, a silent, disadvantaged and marginalized group. the other is often kept outside the mainstream of society. in a poor chinese community in america, women have suffered from both gender oppression and racial discrimination. 0.4 outline of the thesis based on the theories of feminism and post-colonialism as well as a close study on six women characters in the woman warrior, this thesis unveils the process during which the introduction 0.4 6 chinese american women have maintained themselves and struggled in the modern patriarchal society as well as in american society and provides a reference for the overall woman emancipation. chapter one is centered on the analysis of the two tragic characters, “no name woman” and “moon orchid”. kingston reproduces an image of voiceless resistance against patriarchy via “no name woman” and “moon orchid”. although persecuted and tortured mercilessly, they wake up from a long-term aphasia and begin self-articulation. kinston has challenged the inrooted sexuality politics through the depiction of the women suffered in patriarchal and misogynistic society. however, since womens literary creation and their subjective awareness are mainly based on personal experience, womens opposition against the patriarchy used to take place within the home or a certain society, and the opposing objects are usually such moral confinements as womanhood, maternity, etc., imposed on them by the patriarchy. lacking a positive self-model, womens selfhood is chiefly expressed in the form of deserting the home, escaping from the patriarchy and seeking equality with men. chapter two explores the two characters of androgyny, “fa mu lan” and “mother”. kingston challenges the patriarchal society through two legendary characters of androgyny to eradicate sexual confrontation. they are likely to slip into an “androgynous” identity while they are striving to negate their identity as the other, to seek