A Comparative Study Of Beloved And The Woman Warrior

American culture is famous for its cultural diversity. However, the ethnic people inAmerica are still suffering a lot and confronting different kinds of discriminations. In such ahostile environment, the ethnic people become rootless and voiceless. They are facingidentity crisis, especially the crisis of cultural identity. Moreover, American ethnic writers,especially those women writers, have been deeply concerned over the issue of culturalidentities of ethnic minorities in their works. Therefore, the author of this thesis takes twonovels, Beloved by an African-American Nobel Prize winner—Toni Morrison and TheWoman Warrior by a Chinese American—Maxine Hong Kingston, as examples to study thetheme of seeking cultural identities of the ethnic people.Cultural identity is the theoretical foundation of the thesis. Guided by the theories ofEdward Said, Homi K. Bhabha and Stuart Hall, the author of this thesis analyses the crisis ofcultural identities of the ethnic people in the two novels. In the process of seeking culturalidentity, an important strategy, cultural hybridity, is introduced. In fact, cultural hybridity isnot only an important strategy to quest for cultural identity, but also a cultural phenomenonin the context of globalization. Through their constant efforts, the ethnic people and theircultures have been accepted by the dominate culture, which indicates that they havesuccessfully established their distinct cultural identities in the multicultural context.Moreover, the comparative study of Beloved and The Woman Warrior has somepractical significance. As famous novels, Beloved and The Woman Warrior have beendiscussed a lot by scholars at home and abroad. However, few scholars have donecomparative studies of Beloved and The Woman Warrior, and even fewer critics have donecomparative studies of the two novels from the perspective of seeking cultural identity.How can cultures, especially the ethnic cultures, survive and develop in the context ofglobalization? The author of the thesis points out two ways for each culture to survive anddevelop in the multicultural context. Firstly, cultural reconcilement should exist betweencultures and the people of all nations should hold the spirit of love in order to keep culturesharmonious. Secondly, to survive and develop in the multicultural context, each cultureneeds to have its own features which can keep it different from other cultures and furthercontribute to the prosperity of the world culture.