On The Construction Of Fluid Cultural Identity Of Filipino Americans In The Gangster Of Love

Jessica Hagedorn is one of the famous contemporary Filipino American writers. The Gangster of Love is her second novel, and it tells the story of the Riveras, a Filipino family immigrating to the United States in1970. This novel is nominated for Irish Times International Fiction Prize for its unconventional narrative schema and unique style.Based on Stuart Hall’s cultural identity theory, this thesis explores the construction of fluid cultural identity in The Gangster of Love, which is a matter of "being" as well as "becoming", This thesis is composed of six chapters.Chapter1is to introduce Jessica Hagedorn and her works, a brief introduction to The Gangster of Love and the critical responses to it.Chapter2is to introduce the notion of cultural identity and Stuart Hall’s cultural identity theory. Hall believes that cultural identity is a matter of shifting from "being" to "becoming". The process of cultural identity construction is fluid and changeable rather than a stable and fixed being.Chapter3analyzes the "being" of the Riveras, namely, their Filipino identities, including the American cultural impact on the Filipinos and the traditional Filipino culture reflected on the Riveras.Chapter4analyzes the heroine’s construction of cultural identity. At first, she voluntarily pursues American identity, abandoning her Filipino name and changing it into an American name. Meanwhile, she pursues rock and roll, which is a symbol of American culture. Unfortunately, she is trapped in an identity dilemma just like the other minorities, so she decides to resist Filipino language and her mother. But she is still doubly marginalized by the mainstream culture. Finally, she chooses to return to Filipino culture.Chapter5analyzes the "becoming" of the heroine’s fluid cultural identity, which constructs cultural identity by blending both the Filipino culture and the American culture together. In multicultural America, Filipino Americans are not absolute Filipinos, and neither are complete Americans. They are the mixture of the two cultures.In the conclusion chapter, the author tries to point out that, Filipino Americans should respect their mother culture when they are assimilated into the American culture, which can bridge two different cultures. Moreover, the construction of fluid cultural identity is an effective way for Filipino Americans and other ethnic minorities to seek for their cultural identities and find a balance between two different cultures.