Ethnic Cultural Identity In The Mother-Daughter Writings Of Non-White Immigrant Literature

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.