| dc.description.abstract | Other than the other Chinese American writers whose works aim to justify the stereotypical image of Chinese in White culture, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, composed of sixteen interwoven stories told by four couples of Chinese mother and American-born daughter, intends to examine gender identity of Chinese women grown up in different cultures and generations and the contour of power operation in relationships of mother-daughter and husband-wife through the double viewpoints as mother/daughter.
Divided into four chapters, this thesis tries to delve into intersections of power, gender and culture in mother-daughter and husband-wife relationships of different generations from the angle of sociology. In Chapter I, a brief introduction of the trend and subject of the contemporary Chinese-American literature, the historical background of the novel and the definition of the three core elements-power, gender and culture are offered. Chapter II and Chapter III respectively discuss the intersections of the three elements in mother-daughter and husband-wife relationships of two generations. Chapter IV is the conclusion.
The kinships of family and marriage are very common in the society. However, when two different cultures meet in the kinships, what will happen? Excluding or including each other? Meanwhile, under the different cultivations of cultures and thinking modes, what will the family and marriage of these heroines with dual-cultural background become?
Taking family and marriage as the main axis, the thesis attempts to view the intersections, interlockings and inter-effects of familial and marital relationships in the novel under the male-dominant and patriarchal-centered context by Amy Tan’s portrayal of American and Chinese cultures in The Joy Luck Club. My research ultimately finds that through the conflicts and reconciliations between two heterogeneous cultures, which is presented as those between mother-daughter and husband-wife relationships, as the theme of the novel, Amy Tan bridges at first glimpse the seemingly independent and incompatible cultures and demonstrates the possibility of coexistence of heterogeneous cultures. | en_US |