The Evolving Image Of Father In Contemporary Malaysian-Chinese Novels

The word "father" represents two things in Malaysian-Chinese literature: one is the Chinese kinship, and the other is the Chinese culture. From this we can conclude that through the description of Father, Malaysian-Chinese writers are actually trying to convey their thoughts and feelings about the culture and traditions of their motherland, and their strong awareness of being a Chinese, and of being cultivated from the day of birth by the unique Chinese civilization. In this thesis, there will be analysis of the image of Father in contemporary Malaysian-Chinese literature and of the trace of psychological evolvement of the authors, as it can be associated from those literary works, from seeing themselves as Chinese to thinking of themselves as foreign citizens with Chinese origins.Writers of different times create diverse images of Father. In terms of works of the earliest, that is, the first generation of overseas Chinese writers, who worshipped their motherland culture, their version of Father was always in tall constitution and with striking features. However, the images of father portrayed in the novels of the second generation became diversified and complicated, due to their new attitudes towards Father, or in other words, their mother culture. So we would find in these novels images of a minority under enormous pressure of living, thus on the one hand displaying the fear and anxiety of those leading their lives at the turning of ages, and on the other expressing their desire to get rid of the stale aspects of the mother culture and take in fresh ones. Now let's set our eyes on the last generation of overseas Chinese writers. Born in a foreign land against a tally different political background, the youngest generation are facing a dilemma of not knowing where they belong, the collision between two origins haas driven them to re-judge their mother culture, to re-evaluate history and their Father. Therefore, the Father in their writings are representations of alienation and degeneration, mirroring their resistance to the mother culture.In the light of the three interpretations of Father, we can infer rough path on...