The Features Of Dialogicality In The Woman Warrior

The Woman Warrior is the first work of Maxine Hong Kingston, who is an outstanding female Chinese American writer. The work consists of five relatively distinctive short stories and each of them has a somewhat independent plot. They are diverse but are intertwined and linked together in a subtle way. This thesis applies Bakhtin's theory of dialogicality to interpret Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. Based on the analysis of the text, the thesis briefly concludes that the book is contextually a net composed of dialogues in which all kinds of consciousnesses contradict and communicate with each other, while by this way the Chinese American women can build up their non-stereotyped cultural and gender identity.The body of the thesis is from Chapter One to Chapter Five.The first chapter is the introduction. This chapter begins with a brief introduction to Chinese American literature, followed by a brief introduction to Maxine Hong Kingston and The Woman Warrior. Later the literary review on The Woman Warrior is elaborated. Then the thesis renders the reason for choosing the topic and the critical theory to be applied.Chapter Two demonstrates Bakhtin's theory of dialogicality. According to Bakhtin, the condition of dialogue is no longer specifically pointed to the conventional dialogue within quotation marks; it is also extended to the existence of autonomous and equally signifying consciousnesses. In The Woman Warrior, there are respectively independent consciousnesses of equal significance. Then great dialogue and microdialogue as two specific forms reflecting dialogicality are presented in detail.Chapter Three analyzes the great dialogue in The Woman Warrior. Within the novel, the dialogue between mother and daughter, between the Chinese and American culture and between the misogynic ideology and racial discrimination arise.Chapter Four presents the microdialogue in The Woman Warrior. Within the domain of microdialogue, double-voiced discourses show off on the speech level based on the inner conflicts within the character's mind. The last chapter addresses the conclusion of the thesis: The Woman Warrior has set up a dialogue system, through which the Chinese American women can build up non-stereotyped cultural and gender identity specifically belonging to Chinese American women community.