Narrating a Diasporic Identity: Language, Migrancy, and Ethnicity in Shirley Geok-lin Lim''s Monsoon History

• Main Authors: Yi-feng Li, 李宜峰
• Other Authors: Tee Kim Tong
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/41545503220163548228

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 92 === Abstract This thesis sets out to explore Shirley Geok-lin Lim''s poetry collection Monsoon History in terms of three aspects: language, migrancy, and ethnicity. It also attempts to examine Shirley Lim''s diasporic identity by embracing the border thinking. The notion of border-crossing, either physically or psychologically, passes through each chapter to represent the poet''s identity and to re-create a space for herself to articulate. It is a study of Lim''s exile experiences and how she establishes the poetics of diaspora for Asian American literature. In the introduction, the concept of diaspora and the theoretical framework will be explicated. The first chapter probes into the relationship between Shirley Lim and her choice of language in writing. I adopt Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari''s analysis of language and definition of “minor literature” to discuss the deterritorialization of Lim''s writing. The second chapter traces Lim''s migrant status, in which I resort to Edward Said''s “Reflections on Exile” and his different categorizations of exile. The third chapter, appealing to several theorists or critics, such as Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner, and Ling-chi Wang, deals with Lim''s problem of ethnic identity displayed in her poetry. The last chapter concludes with an overall argumentation that the destination and dissolution of Lim''s identity is an Asian American because of reterritorialization of language, migrancy, and ethnicity.