Abstract: Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior is a milestone of Chinese American literature and a masterpiece of feminism. This literary classic contains a series of themes, such as gender, race and culture. With the imaginative fiction and concise line-drawing technique, it exhibits the childhood of a little girl in American Chinatown and the living status of the women around her. According to the different features of self-identity seeking and establishment, the author will divide the female identity establishment and seeking of The Woman Warrior into three stages, that is primitive stage, self-improving stage and self-strengthening stage, and then analyze three typical female images of each stage. From the perspective of feminist criticism, androgyny and deconstruction respectively, the author will investigate the characteristics of each stage, the methods of different identity establishment and the practical meaning of this work.
Key Words: The Woman Warrior; Chinese American female; identity establishment; feminist criticism; androgyny; deconstruction
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………..1
1.1 The Background of the Chinese American Literature…………..........................1
1.2 Maxine Hong Kingston and The Woman Warrior……………………………....2
1.3 The Methodolodies and Purpose of The Thesis…………………………………3
2. The Beginning of Identity Establishment……………………………4
2.1 The Background and Feature of Primitive Stage………………………………...4
2.2 Theory Introduction: Feminist Criticism………………………………………...4
2.3 The Tragedy of No Name Woman…………...…………………………………..5
3. The Development of Identity Establishment………………………..8
3.1 The Background and Feature of Self-Improving Stage………………………..8
3.2 Theory Introduction: Androgyny………………………………………………8
3.3 The Rebellion of Fa Mu Lan…………………………………………………...9
4. The Accomplishment of Identity Establishment…………………...12
4.1 The Background and Feature of Self-Strengthening Stage…………………….12
4.2 Theory Introduction: Deconstuction……………………………………………12
4.3 The Assimilation of Ts’ai Yen…………………………………………………..13
5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………....15
Bibliography…………………………………………………………….19
