On Women's Images In The Valley Of Amazement From The Perspective Of Orientalism

Amy Tan, who was born and grew up in America, is a well-known Chinese American woman writer. In 1989, she published her first novel The Joy Luck club, which had aroused much attention in America and it had become the New'York Times bestseller. In 2013, Amy Tan published her latest novel The Valley of Amazement, which had also aroused much more attention in the world.As a Chinese American woman writer, Amy Tan's dual identity has influenced her writing all the time. In her novels, Amy Tan continues her consistent story pattern, which presents the relationship of several generations of female images. Amy Tan also pays a lot of attention to the collision and conflicts of Chinese culture and American culture. And she stresses the mother-daughter relationship and identity crisis. The narrative method is women's self-speech. However, The Valley of Amazement does not repeat Amy Tan's previous novels creation methods. She has made many breakthroughs in the novel,which means Amy Tan has renewed her understanding of cultures.This thesis consists of five parts. In the first chapter, the author introduces the life experiences of Amy Tan and some background information about her recent novel—The Valley of Amazement. In the second chapter, the author reviews the previous research on Amy Tan and her works conducted by both Chinese and foreign scholars. In the third chapter, the author introduces the theoretical basis of the thesis—Orientalism, which is of great importance to the studies of Chinese American literature. In the fourth chapter, the author analyzes "women's images in The Valley of Amazement from the perspective of Orientalism respectively represented by the characteristics of the Chinese American woman Violet, American woman Lulu, Chinese woman Gourd Dove and etc., which shows that Amy Tan surpasses her previous writing in the novel, and positively develops her literary creativity. To herself, she re-understands Chinese culture and makes many breakthroughs.The last part of the thesis is the conclusion which summarizes above-mentioned contents and the research findings.Due to Amy Tan's special bi-cultural background, many scholars both at home and abroad have already made a lot of research on Amy Tan and her works from different perspectives. The thesis analyzes women's images in The Valley of Amazement from the perspective of orientalism. The author hopes that the thesis is possibly to make some contributions to the further studies of Amy Tan and her works.