Women’s Resistance In Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s Joss And Gold

Shirley Geok-lin Lim is an outstanding Malaysian American writer.Her debut novel Joss and Gold tells the story of Asian women who face the dual oppressions of race and gender and struggle to find self-identity in the post-colonial period.In previous studies,most of them focused on the diaspora and national identity,and failed to combine the prominent issues of race and gender in the novel.Based on the post-colonial feminist theory,this thesis analyzes the living dilemma and resistant strategies of women in the novel and exposes the reason of their marginalized condition so as to deconstruct the colonial and male-centred power discourse.This thesis is mainly divided into five chapters.Chapter One includes a brief introduction of Shirley Geok-lin Lim,literature review of the novel Joss and Gold,post-colonial feminist theory and research question.Chapter Two analyzes the double oppressions of Asian women in Joss and Gold.It firstly introduces the social situation of Asian countries such as Malaysia during the post-colonial period,then explains the reason of women’s oppression and some relevant concepts.On the basis,it mainly focuses on the causes and manifestations of Asian women’s oppression in the text.Their oppression comes from two reasons.One is that Malaysian racists advocate the pro-Malay policy in a multiethnic society,and work with American imperialists to exclude Chinese and other Asian ethnic groups.The other is that the local patriarchal culture has marginalized Asian women again.Chapter Three discusses the multiple resistances of Asian women in Joss and Gold.As the construction of Asian women’s subjective consciousness is a phased process,their struggle is bound to run into twists and turns.The heroine of the novel seeks acceptance from male oppressors of the same race,Malaysian racists,and white American imperialists at the beginning.After repeated failures,she finallyrealizes the importance of self-empowerment and establishes sisterhood with her oppressed partners to resist the dual oppressions of race and gender together.When their accumulated strength reaches a certain level,and the former oppressors gradually come to realize their mistake,a new type of male-female relationship will be established.Chapter Four discusses the resistant writing strategies in Joss and Gold.This thesis thinks that the author deconstructs the western power discourse and constructs a narrative system with Asian women as the core by adopting a hybridized English,rewriting western canons and reshaping the images of Asian women and puts forward the idea of multiculturalism in view of their dilemma.Chapter Five is the conclusion.This thesis includes that Shirley Geok-lin Lim,by emphasizing the tortuous experience of Asian women,reveals that the nature of oppression against Asian women is a result of the operation of the power mechanism conspired by patriarchy and colonialism,and expresses the humane concern for marginalized female groups and even oppressed humans.Lim,based on her own multicultural identity,advocates that multiculturalism is the development direction for multiethnic countries like Malaysia.It reflects her thinking on the post-colonial society and is an attempt to take part in the construction of mainstream discourse from the marginal place.