The Construction Of Cultural Identity In Pearl S.Buck’s "kinfolk" In The Third Space Perspective

Pearl S.Buck,an American writer who writes cross-culturally,won the Nobel Prize for her realistic portrayal of Chinese peasants.Her language is simple and authentic,and her novel often unconsciously reveal a bicultural experience,full of reflections on cultural identity.In her long novel "Kinfolk",Pearl focuses on Chinese as a special group and uses it to expose various cultural problems they face.It is noteworthy that she does not discuss cultural identity directly,but constructs a Third Space in the novel to reveal the cultural identity of Chinese people and guide their cultural identity through characteristics of Third Space.Each person in "Kinfolk" suffers from the dilemma of marginalized or even divided cultural identity.Despite their exclusion from the mainstream culture,they still have a distinct sense of self,and they want to break out of the identity dilemma and pursue and construct their own cultural identity.In this regard,this paper systematically analyzes and discusses the concept of cultural identity in Pearl’s "Kinfolk" through three chapters,and while sorting out the distinctive cultural identities of different characters,it also deciphers the historical context and significance of the times behind them.The first chapter focuses on the assimilation and fragmentation of cultural identities in the marginalized spaces in the work,which are developed at two levels:the assimilation of cultural identities in the spaces of American apartments and American Chinatown,and the fragmentation of cultural identities in the spaces of urban China and rural China.Through the marginalized characteristics of the above spaces,the aim is to expose the plight of ethnic minorities in the mainstream American culture and the situation of the backward people in the advanced modern culture.The second chapter focuses on how Chinese people reconstruct their cultural identity in the third space and realize the third cultural identity.Through the re-examination of the characters’ cultural identities in three spaces: the space of fantasy,the space of fusion and the space of crossing,the characters’ different ways of pursuing their cultural identities in the novel are found,and the way of pursuing the culture advocated by Pearl,that is,the cultural identity of hybridization and negotiation,is discovered in the hidden space.The third chapter explores the ideal cultural identity that Pearl seeks for the bicultural experiencer,i.e.,to build a fluid cultural identity in a diverse space.First,the author’s mixed linguistic thinking and the plurality of her cultural identity can be seen in the changing linguistic space,both in the English writing of and in the English or Chinese expressions of the novel’s characters.Secondly,in the changing cultural space,both Pearl’s rewriting of Christian culture and the novel’s characters’ distortion of Confucius’ image can reveal the author’s shifting cultural identity.Finally,at the political level,whether it is the theory of saving China by the young people who stayed in America or the theory of saving China by reformism,they are in fact statements based on the American cultural context,and such a political position leads to a return to a single,fixed cultural identity.This political position leads to a return to a single,fixed cultural identity.Through the pursuit and construction of cultural identities by the characters in different spaces,Pearl exposes the reality of the marginalization of people experiencing dual cultures under the influence of cultural hegemony and nationalism,and also creates a way for people to break through the dilemma of survival-to build a third space and be a bridge of cultural connection.Unfortunately,although Pearl actively reflects on the plight of the marginalized,her own cultural position inevitably leads to failure,and the concept of cultural identity construction she advocates can only end up in a paradoxical form.