Subversion And Reconstruction: A New Historicist Study Of China Man And Donald Duk

China Men and Donald Duk, written by Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank Chin respectively, two of the most controversial contemporary Chinese American writers, reveal their ambitions to reconstruct Chinese American History. However, the subject matter of the literary texts are presented in distinctive ways, which uncovers the inner tensions in the power/discourse structure conceived by the two authors. With the assumptions of new historicism and the method of close reading, this thesis compares China Men and Donald Duk from three dimensions, including a vertical study, a horizontal study and a study of the writing strategies. Based on the “historicity of texts” and “textuality of history”, this thesis presents a vertical study which analyzes their circulation with the grand narrative, examining how they respond, deconstruct and reconstruct the same historical events differently. By developing a horizontal study which analyzes their interaction with the contemporary ideologies and discourse of their own time, this thesis argues that both texts are subjected to their contemporary social ideologies and the subjective intention of the authors. Assuming that the two texts practice new historicism, this thesis compares their different ways of practicing and reexamines what predicaments, problems, and probable solutions through their distinctive writing strategies.