Study Of Violet’s Cultural Identity In The Valley Of Amazement From The Perspective Of Homi Bhabha’s Post-colonial Theory

Amy Tan is one of the most important Chinese American writers in modern times,bringing far-reaching influences to Chinese American literary field.Her first work The Joy Luck Club was immediately acclaimed as a success and later she managed to publish other great and popular books.Her most recent book The Valley of Amazement published in 2013,was in great demand because of its multiple themes,colorful plot,and characters.In this novel Amy Tan explored the identity issue and showed her understanding of cultural identity—cultural hybridity.This thesis devotes to study Violet’s cultural identity in The Valley of Amazement on the basis of Homi Bhabha’s post-colonial theory.The reason to choose Bhabha’s post-colonial theory is that Bhabha explains that cultural identity is in the state of flowing,not fixing.The construction of one’s cultural identity is a process,in which the subject may undergo cultural negation,cultural negotiation and cultural hybridity.Bhabha’s explanation of cultural identity shares similarities with Tan’s understanding of cultural identity,and also shares similarities with the process of Violet’s construction of cultural identity.According to Homi Bhabha,cultural difference would result in cultural negation.At first,faced with different cultures,because of the exaggerion of Westen culture,the bias on Chinese culture and the need to prove her American cultural identity,Violet chose cultural negation instead of a rational attitude.She negated Chinese culture blindly while accepted American culture totally.Cultural negation may lead to marginalization which needs cultural negotiation.Because of her negation,she was marginalized.Then,she met with living crisis and identity crisis.All those factors forced her to have cultural negotiation,and she began to learn Chinese culture,accepted her Chinese identity.After cultural negotiation,the subject would have cultural hybridity.Finally,on the basis of cultural negotiation,she had cultural hybridity.She hybridized different languages,lifestyles,the past and the present.After struggle,she established the new cultural identity.