Endless Song Of Love-an Archetypal Interpretation Of The Hundred Secret Senses

The Hundred Secret Senses is Chinese American writer Amy Tan's third novel after The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God's Wife, which was published in 1995. However, critics hold controversial opinions over this novel centering on the ghost stories and superstitions presented in the plot. Up till now, few critics have carried an in-depth and comprehensive study on it.Focusing on the critical controversy, this thesis attempts to analyze the archetypal characters and motifs developed in The Hundred Secret Senses from the perspective of archetypal criticism in order to explore the collective unconscious of love. This thesis can be divided into three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion.The introduction part includes a brief introduction to Amy Tan and The Hundred Secret Senses, a general survey of literary review on Chinese American literature and The Hundred Secret Senses, motivation and methodology of this thesis.The body is consisted of four chapters. Chapter 2 briefly introduces the basic theoretical ideas of archetypal criticism. Chapter 3 is an analysis of the archetypal characters presented in this novel. Kwan is the displacement of The Wise Old Man; Li Binbin (Big Ma) is the manifestation of The Great Mother. Three archetypal motifs are shown in Chapter 4: death-rebirth motif, sacrificial scapegoat motif, and quest motif. Chapter 5 illustrates the collective unconscious through analyzing the marginalized and multi-cultural identities of characters in this novel.The conclusion summarizes the thesis and emphasizes the significance of Amy's employment of archetypes in The Hundred Secret Senses, which not only adds the readability and profoundity but also examines the collective unconscious shared by all human people. In this way, the theme of love is intensified.