【作者】 关合凤；

【导师】 吴雪莉；

【作者基本信息】 河南大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2002， 博士

【摘要】 人生在世，总要努力构建与众不同的身份。因而，寻求身份便成为当代文学热衷的一个主题。处于种族和性别双重边缘的美国华裔妇女如何探寻她们的族裔身份和性别身份自然成为美国华裔女作家关注的对象。本论文以“文化批评”为理论先导，旨在解读美国华裔女性作家的作品，着重探讨身份寻求这一主题以及为此主题服务的艺术手段。通过对汤亭亭、谭恩美作品的细读，笔者试图揭示出深嵌于美国华裔女性作家作品之中的社会及文化结构，以理解将这些作品塑造成型的叙事和艺术实践，并最终阐明美国华裔女性作家笔下的身份寻求过程之中的混同与融合趋势。 本选题在美国华裔文学研究领域尚属新课题。从目前查阅到的资料来看，尽管国内外一些学者对华裔美国人的族裔身份颇感兴趣，但是并没有整体系统地论述过美国华裔妇女的身份寻求过程。笔者从本土中国女性的视角出发，以有别于美国中心的发言位置，期望另寻他径：通过充分利用本身特有的文化资源，并借助于现代文学批评理论对美国华裔女作家的作品进行文本细读，为美国华裔女性文学创造出他类研究，借以拓宽美国华裔女性文学批评之研究领域。 在60年代美国民权运动以及女权运动大潮的猛烈冲击之下，美国华裔女性文学得到了蓬勃发展。以汤亭亭、谭恩美为首的美国华裔女性作家已在美国文坛崛起，她们试图通过记载和再创自己及父辈们的生活，反映和探讨种族历史与传统文化、将华裔美国人定位为一种新的文化身份、并努力修改柔弱女子的性别身份。在这些作家中间，汤亭亭最具影响力。她的所有著作——《女勇士》、《中国佬》以及《孙行者》均有一个共同的核心主题：试图通过描述她作为在美国诞生成长的华人移民后代的亲身经历，来探讨身为华裔美国人的意义。谭恩美善于通过母女关系来描述美国华裔妇女的身份困惑，探讨其文化身份的转变过程。作品中母女之间矛盾的最终和解象征着东西方文化融合的必然趋势。美国华裔女作家的祖师母——水仙花、美国华裔文学之母——王玉雪、华裔文坛的后起之秀——任碧莲、伍慧明等人也都探讨了身份寻求的问题。由于时间和篇幅所限，此文将主要以汤亭亭及谭恩美的作品为分析材料，间或提及其他作家的作品。 第一章分析种种对美国华裔妇女的“消音”势力，并阐述华裔女作家打破沉默、构筑新身份的内外动因及破除沉默的具体方法。文中指出，华人在美国属于少数民族，被推向远离主流文化中心的边缘。而作为少数民族的女性，美国华裔妇女更是不幸地集三种“弱点”于一身：首先，她们是欧美世界中的华人；其次，她们是东方男性世界中的妇女；再次，她们还是西方男性世界中的华人女性。她们不仅要因此遭受普遍存在的种族歧视，而且还要经历来自东西两个世界男性优越感对她们的冲击。欧美话语和男性话语以势不可挡之势将她们淹没，她们要从巨大的强势话语中突围出来，找回夫落的女性本真的存在，探寻和确认女性的白我意识，是一个极为艰难的过程。然而，在美洲大陆上出生长大的华裔女性作家们，受到民权运动和女权运动的激励，不甘于沉默和被消音，毅然在这逆境中勃发出来，勇敢地喊出了争取平等与发展的最强音。美国华裔女作家不仅站在女性的立场上，以女性为主体，以妇女生活为题材，创作出了许多有强烈性别意识的作品；而且将对妇女命运的思考和对华人移民历史的反思紧紧地结合在一起。她们的作品在凸现女性自我意识的同时注重对美国华人移民历史的重审，表现出处于双重边缘的华裔女性对东西方父权统治和美国种族歧视政策的悻逆与抗争。美国华裔女性作家以不可抗拒的意志、不可动摇的自信，抗议美国人构建的有关华裔美国人的刻扳印象、重写美籍华人的历史、深入挖掘和重塑了一批新型的华裔美国人形象、并极力凸显出她们自己创造的“女性特质”与“华裔人性”等概念。 第二章详细探讨了汤与谭作品之中映射出来的美国华裔妇女不断变化的自我形象与自我意识。美国华裔妇女易为女性诞生于由两个种族的男性主导的世界之中，无法就族裔及性别身份给出一个简单的答案。为了找到本真的自我，美国华裔妇女势必努力消除这两个世界。两种文化间的种种矛盾。置身于两个世界的诸多感受使得美国华裔妇女极难确立她们自己的文化身份。在她们对族裔身份的寻求过程之中，美国华裔妇女同她们的男性同胞一样，一般要经历三个阶段——留守家园、脱离家园及返回家园。在经历了东西方文化冲突之后，美国华裔妇女最终认识到，和谐、融合与互渗应该是其指导原则。因此，她们极力寻觅并加强同那双重世界的有效联系。在跨越了先将自另认同为中国人，然后义将自己辩识为美国人这两个阶段之后，她们将自月定位为华裔美国人——一种文化混合体，表达出新一代华裔包容中美两种文化，使其取长补短、达到和谐统一的美好愿望。 在多元文化环境之中，美国华裔妇女构建新型性别乌份方面的努力更是举步维艰。在寻求个性化的性别身份过程中，美国华裔妇女同样要经历上述三个阶段的历程。由于她们置身其间的社会结构总是硬性地为她们厘定“应该如此”一类的形象?更多还原

【Abstract】 The common human struggle to establish a distinct identity is an issue of universal interest in literary history. Chinese American women writers have a natural affinity for the identity-seeking process of Chinese American women, who must deal daily with several cross-cultural sets of expectations and experiences. In their works, they often raise questions about the relationship between ethnicity, gender, and identity. With cultural criticism as its theoretical guideline, this dissertation intends to study Chinese American women’s literature focusing on the identity-seeking theme and the writing artistry accommodating the theme. Through careful reading of Maxine Hong Kingston’s and Amy Tan’s works, the author attempts to visualize the social and cultural structures embedded in Chinese American women’s literature, to understand the narrative and artistic practices that have shaped their works, and eventually shed some light on the general tendency of integration and synthesis in Chinese American women’s identity-seeking process.Judging by the materials I have collected, the identity issue of Chinese American women is still a field in Chinese American literary studies which has not been wholly and systematically gone into. From a perspective other than that of American scholars, a perspective of a native Chinese woman, the writer of this paper hopes to present an alternative view, and thus broaden the study field of Chinese American women’s literary criticism. This aim is intended to be achieved by making the best advantage of the native Chinese cultural background as well as a detailed textual analysis of Chinese American women’s literature with the help of modern literary theory.In the wake of the civil rights and feminist movements, there have appeared many Chinese American women writers who seek to claim Chinese American as a new cultural identity and try to revise their gender identity by writing about their own ethnic history and culture. They explore through their writings the paradoxical nature of ethnic American identity and gender identity. Among these writers, Kingston has been the most influential. The central theme in all of her writing-The Woman Warrior, China Men, Tripmaster Monkey-is the attempt to sort out what being Chinese Americanmeans through the exploration of her experiences as an American-bom child of immigrant parents. Amy Tan is another Chinese American woman who addresses the important theme of identity confusions of Chinese American women. She explores the transition of cultural identity by telling of the problematic relationship between Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters. The generational conflicts and reconciliation often reveal the progress of the American-born daughters’ rejection and acceptance of their mothers’ Chinese cultural heritage. Other Chinese American women writers such as Edith Eaton, Jade Snow Wong and Gish Jen also like to explore the identity-seeking issue. Due to the limitation of space and time, this paper will mainly draw on Kingston’s and Tan’s works as basic material, with brief mention of others’ writings.Chapter One analyzes the layers of silence imposed on Chinese American women resulting in an anxiety of identity, and illustrates the impetus and ways of their struggle to break the silence and forge a new identity for themselves. Doubly marginalized, Chinese American women suffer double oppression. They are the victims of both American hegemonic ideology, which devalues them because of their race, and patriarchal ideology, which devalues them because of their gender. Moreover, patriarchal oppression conies not only from colonialist Americans, but from their own patriarchal Chinese culture as well. The civil rights and feminist movements prompted Chinese American women to break the silence enjoined upon them. With indomitable will and unshakeable self-confidence, Chinese American women writers are speaking out against American stereotypes of Chinese Americans and affirming their own concepts of femininity and "Chinesesness".Chapter更多还原