【作者】 叶珍；

【导师】 叶华年；

【作者基本信息】 上海师范大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2008， 硕士

【摘要】 由于美利坚合众国是个多民族国家,因此美国文学包含形形色色的族裔作家的作品。本文通过比较分析托妮·莫里森和谭恩美的作品来探究美国少数民族文学的代表之一即黑人文学和华裔文学。因为既是非白人移民作家又是女性作家,她们在自己的作品中得以独特的视角探索非白人移民的身份危机。族裔文化研究毫无疑问是非白人移民文学研究最重视的课题之一,对文化认同有一个正确的认识能为非白人移民族裔文化认同的建构提供一种精神支持。现今大多数作家都很重视文化认同这一主题,而像莫里森和谭恩美这一类族裔女性作家,则偏爱母女关系为主题的小说,并通过这些作品研究族裔女性在以男性为中心的主流社会中所遭遇的身份危机。她们以反传统方式写作,并以女性作为自己作品的主角或叙述者以此解构以西方为中心或以男性为中心的经典文本模式,解构文化霸权,并为族裔女性建构主体性。本论文对莫里森和谭恩美的作品的比较显示她们有很多共同点和不同点:1.她们都是非白人作家。莫里森是非裔作家,而谭恩美是华裔作家,且两人都是女性作家。在男性和白人为中心的美国社会中,族裔女性作家只能沦为边缘人。2.作为族裔女作家,莫里森和谭恩美都很重视非白人移民族裔尤其是族裔女性的文化认同问题。他们在作品中讨论少数民族女性所遭遇的种族歧视和性别歧视。她们一面批判男性中心的白人社会,一面设法为她们同情的女性同胞寻找解救之路。3.她们在写作技巧方面有相似之处。她们都是后现代作家,因此在作品中运用了解构、重写历史和讲故事的方式来推翻白人社会的男性中心主义和文化霸权的不合理因素。她们独特的写作方式得到白人社会的青睐。莫里森的作品曾荣获数个美国大奖,并被授予诺贝尔文学奖。谭恩美的《喜福会》成为美国书架上连续九个月的畅销书,她的《灶神之妻》也很受美国读者欢迎。4.她们尤为关注的是作品中的母女冲突问题,如《喜福会》的四对母女关系及《宠儿》中塞丝对死去的女儿宠儿浓厚的“母爱”。这与作者的出身有关,尤其是她们自己与母亲的关系有关。这两位作家都从母亲那儿继承了古老的传说并把这些写成故事,因此母女冲突也成了她们作品的主线。5.两位作家都是女权主义的代表,是“失语”的族裔女性的代言人。她们以女性为作品中的主角或叙述者,而男性反倒成了无关紧要的小角色。她们因此自称为“女权主义者”。另一方面,这两位作家虽都有自己独树一帜的写作方法,但发展方向大相径庭,这是因为她们对文化和文学有不同的理解。莫里森批评白人社会的歧视制度的同时,也尖锐地指出黑人自身的弱点和不足之处。而谭恩美是在美国出生的华裔,对中国历史难免存在误解和偏见,她既追求美国社会推崇的个人主义和女权主义,又向往古老东方的文化传统。也因为这样谭恩美常常受到有些华裔作家的攻击,认为她的作品一味迎合白人主流社会。另外,由于黑人在美国是受压迫最深的民族,作为黑人女作家,莫里森能看到种族歧视的根源。相反,华裔既有“消极的刻板形象”也有“模范少数民族”的称号,因此华裔女作家谭恩美的作品表现的是一心想得到美国主流文化的认同的愿望。本论文选用了后殖民女性批评理论和后殖民文化批评两种文学批评方法把非白人移民文学中母女关系写作的文学因素和文化现象结合起来分析,并通过心理分析法来解析非白人移民同化和异化的根本原因。此外,本文也运用后现代现实主义理论,把莫里森和谭恩美被称为后现代现实主义作家予以研究以解构父权社会、白人中心社会的话语模式,为生活在美国社会的族裔女性建构主体性。更多还原

【Abstract】 As the United States is a nation of multi-ethnicities, American literature includes a variety of literary works by minority writers. This thesis focuses on black literature and Chinese American literature, the representatives of American minority literature, through comparison and analyses of the novels by Toni Morrison and by Amy Tan. Since they are non-white immigrant writers as well as females, they are in a strong position to do researches into the identity crisis of the non-white immigrants in their novels from a unique perspective. Ethnic cultural identity is undoubtedly an important subject for the study of non-white immigrant literature. A correct realization of cultural identity provides spiritual support to the construction of ethnic cultural identity of non-white immigrants in America.The comparison of Toni Morrison and Amy Tan shows a lot of similarities and differences between them.First, neither of them is a writer of the American white race. Toni Morrison is Afro-American while Amy Tan is Chinese American. What is more, they are both females. As the USA society is male-centered and white-dominated, the ethnic female writers are excluded as a marginal group.Second, as ethnic female writers, Morrison and Amy Tan both attach great importance to the issue of ethnic cultural identity for the non-white immigrants, especially for the females. In their novels, they discuss the issues concerning racial and sexual discrimination suffered by the ethnic females. While they show sympathy for them and criticize the male-dominated white society, they make efforts to find a way out for their female compatriots.Third, they share similarity in the way of writing. Since they are typical of post-modernism, they employ the means of deconstruction, rewriting of the history and story-telling, etc. In this way, they attempt to overwhelm the male chauvinism and cultural hegemony of the white society. In addition, their unique way of writing wins favor with the whole society. Toni Morrison wins several national awards of the USA for her excellent novels, and also the Nobel Prize for literature. As for Amy Tan, her novel The Joy Luck Club is a bestseller for as long as nine months. And her other novels like The Kitchen God’s Wife are also well received by the USA society.Fourth, they both pay special attention to the conflicts between mother and daughter as clues in their novels. For instance, The Joy Luck Club tells the story of four pairs of mothers and daughters while in Beloved, Sethe cherishes“thick love”for Beloved, the dead daughter, for a long time to go. They both learn the ancient tales and legends from their mothers and write them into stories. That is why the conflicts between mother and daughter run through most of their novels.Fifth, the two writers are both representatives of feminism. They speak for the“silenced”ethnic females. They have females as narrator or heroine in the novels. Males are nothing but minor roles compared to females. In a word, they deem themselves“feminist”.On the other hand, the two writers develop a unique writing style in different directions because they have different understandings of culture and literature. While Toni Morrison attacks the discrimination in the white society, she also points out the weakness and inadequacy of the black. In contrast, as Amy Tan is an American-born Chinese, she develops a misunderstanding of Chinese history from a distorted perspective. In other words, she is assimilated into the individualism and feminism of the American way despite that she longs for the culture and tradition of the ancient oriental country. As a result, Amy Tan is attacked by some Chinese-American writers in that her novels cater to the American mainstream society. What is more, as the black are the most oppressed, Morrison, the Afro-American writer, can look into the root cause of racial discrimination. But Chinese Americans have the designation of“negative stereotype”as well as“model minority”. As a result, Amy Tan, the Chinese American writer, doesn’t choose to totally exclude the mainstream culture but to be somewhat identified with it.In this thesis, the methodologies of post-colonial feminist criticism and post-colonial cultural criticism are employed to link literary elements with cultural phenomenon in the mother-daughter writings of non-white immigrant literature. Moreover, the root cause of assimilation and alienation of non-white immigrants in the US society are analyzed by way of psychoanalysis. In addition, Toni Morrison and Amy Tan are also considered in relation to the post-modernist realism. In this way, this thesis helps to deconstruct the patriarchal society as well as white-dominated society and establish the subjectivity for ethnic females in the US society.更多还原