"Cross[ing] Boundaries Not Delineated in Space": Maxine Hong Kingston''s The Woman Warrior

• Main Authors: Chen, Chao-hua, 陳昭華
• Other Authors: Chang, Shu-li
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1996
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/90445179386384722106

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系 === 84 === Maxine Hong Kingston''s The Woman Warrior is an unessentializing text that questions binary oppositions most ingrained in our reasoning. The space it opens up is one straddling over several boundaries; though those boundaries are not clear-cut, there is no mistaking the crossing act. This thesis tries to preserve that subtle, elusive and ever-changing quality inscribed in the text to avoid essentialization. The study of the ambiguous text reveals language to be related to the always- in-the-process subjectivity constructed in the book. Revival of ambiguity releases the free play of language and is thus preliminary to exposing the hierarchy that power and desire have arbitrarily imposed on meanings. The attempt to tropologize the five narratives of the book brings us to a better understanding of the (lack of) organization of the book. Since tropes describe not only the relation between words and things, but also how we relate ourselves to the world, this attempt shows us how the narrator comes to terms with the confusing world around her. The Woman Warrior has been warmly welcomed into the feminist canon; a close look at this enthusiasm shows such reception to be both self-defeating and self-delimiting. The text challenges the male/female hierarchy, but it goes beyond reversing that hierarchy or slavishing equalizing the unequal. And that space beyond is constructed not only by gender, but also by class, ethnicity, generation, and many others. With a critical and creative way of looking at difference, we can negotieate the above differences without erasing them. And altogether, they make both a community of Chinese Americans and an individual Chinese American woman. To tackle all these differences at the same time is a challenge the narrator faces and an approach the book demands of its readers.