On The Ethnicity Of Chinese American Literature

This thesis attempts to start from the concept of “ethnicity”.From “the writing of Chinese American history”,“pursuit of Chinese American identity” and “rethinking of Chinese cultural traditions transplanted to America” these aspects to explore “ethnicity” showed in the contemporary Chinese American literature,this kind of “ethnicity”manifests the unique feature of Chinese American literature,which differs from the literary works of the white mainstream and makes Chinese American literature possible to make a loud voice.At the same time,some Chinese works that are beyond ethnicity in the theme have bold innovationin the forms,so as to avoid falling into the trap of ethnic essentialism.In the 1990 s,a number of outstanding Chinese American writers have emerged in American literary circles.The creative forms and themes of Chinese American literary are tending to be more diversed,and the language and literary rhetoric of works are more aesthetic.In fact,literariness shouldn't be limited by ethnicity,but should be in harmony with it.Since Chinese American literature is an indispensable part of ethnic minority literature,both its ethnicityand literariness cannot be ignored.As a cross-cultural literary text,literary textsthat are lacking of ethnicity can not be regarded as the true Chinese American literature,and theliterary text that are lacking of literariness cannot become part of American literature either.This thesis tries to combine these two aspects and will analyze the representative works of Chinese American literature,and then reveal that the contemporary Chinese American literaturenot only has the values of helping groups of Chinese Ethnic group make a sound,but also has high literary value.Through the interpretation of the works,we can see that the problems of Chinese and American literature,ethnicity and literariness don't confuse Chinese American writers after 1990 s any more.Ethnicity is like a double-edged sword,and it can promote the acceptance of Chinese American literature.But it will cut off the dialogue with mainstream literature if to be overemphasized.Therefore,only put the research of ethnicity into American literary background,is the research more objective and meaningful.Discussing the influence of ethnicity on the acceptance of Chinese American literature and comparison of the differences of acceptance of Chinese American literature at home and abroad are helpful for us to think about the existed bias in the process of acceptance of Chinese American literature in our country.What's more,we can have a better understanding of ethnicity through it.