Trauma And Recovery In Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior

Maxine Hong Kingston is no doubt one of the most preeminent Chinese American writers in contemporary literary circle. Her works, conveying the voice of ethnic groups, have been paid widespread attentions to by many scholars both at home and abroad. Her first masterpiece The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of Girlhood Among Ghosts, published in 1976, is regarded as the milestone of Chinese American literature. Many researchers abroad and home decode it from various perspectives such as stereotype criticism, cultural identity, postcolonial, but few focuses on trauma. Trauma, as a kind of common psychological phenomenon, has been an important theme of literary narration and a major concern of ethnic writers, especially female writers. Therefore, this thesis intends to cover this research gap by giving a detailed exploration of the novel’s theme of trauma and recovery combined with trauma theory. There are five chapters altogether:Chapter One is an introduction to Maxine Hong Kingston and her major works. Then it introduces the research perspective, significance, originality and contents of this thesis after examining the studies on The Woman Warrior at home and abroad.Chapter Two mainly elaborates trauma theory and its development.Chapter Three places emphasis on the display of the traumatic symptoms such as aphasia, ghosts, maniac, suicide, etc. Besides, the causes of trauma are illustrated, covering racial discrimination, gender oppression.Chapter Four mainly deals with the ways to dissolve trauma---- gaining help from family, talk-story or writing, and rebuilding identity.Chapter Five states that Kingston’s traumatic narration is to call on the Chinese-American females to derive strength to survive from the painful memory of trauma. Kingston’s recovery provides a significant reference value not only for Chinese American women but all ethnic minorities.