A Study On Characterization In The Woman Warrior From The Perspective Of Systemic Functional Grammar

The Woman Warrior is the masterpiece of Maxine Hong Kingston, an eminent Chinese American female writer. The publication of this novel in1976created an immediate sensation among American readers and academia. It has been universally acknowledged that The Woman Warrior has contributed a lot to breaking the stereotype of American mainstream towards female writers of ethnic minorities in the United States. Recognition has also been given to this novel for its milestone significance in the development of Chinese American Literature.The stories of five Chinese and Chinese American women compose the five chapters of this novel. Female images with distinctive characteristics are produced under Maxine’s artful writing skills and unique narrative strategies. Since its publication, an increasing number of scholars at home and abroad have turned their attention to the study on this novel. Dozens of essays on The Woman Warrior can be found in various journals. These studies primarily focus on its themes and characters within the literary theoretical framework (feminism, archetypal theory, Bakhtin’s dialogic theory, orientalism, post-colonialism and post-modernism).Applying linguistic theories to discourse analysis of literary works is a new trend. To swim with this trend, the present study makes an attempt to discuss characterization of female images in The Woman Warrior from the perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar.In this thesis, transitivity system, mood system and modality system which contribute to the realization of ideational function and interpersonal function are chosen as the analytical tools. The narrative language and the dialogues used to depict No Name Woman, Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid respectively in Chapter One, Three and Four are taken as the target data of this study.Through descriptive study of the choices of grammatical resources that realize transitivity system, mood system and modality system (six processes types: material processes, mental processes, relational processes, behavioral processes, verbal processes and existential processes, the participants and circumstantial elements in each processes; mood types and mood structures; modal auxiliaries and modal adjuncts) in the target data, we find that Maxine’s motivated choices of grammatical-resources and her contrastive writing skill has successfully created the twofold image of No Name Woman who on one hand, is resigned and confined to the Chinese traditional conventions, and on the other hand desires for romantic relationship and beauty; the independent, tough and arbitrary woman warrior image of Brave Orchid; and the coward image of Moon Orchid who is an escapist and lacks her own thoughts.The personality traits of these three female protagonists revealed through the analysis of grammatical resources which are used to realize ideational function and interpersonal function is no other than the salient characteristics of these leading roles in this novel. Therefore, this thesis shows that these grammatical resources make contributions to characterization of the female characters in this novel, further demonstrating the validity of applying Systemic Function Grammar to studies on the literary works. Furthermore, this thesis sheds some new light upon studies on the female images in The Woman Warrior.