| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 100 === Abstract
The Hundred of Secret Senses was written by Asian American writer, Amy Tan and published in 1995. Tan’s first two novels, The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife particularly described the mother-daughter relationship. The Hundred Secret Senses, however, is different. This novel portrays the mysterious lives of half-sisters, American-born Olivia and Chinese-immigrant Kwan. The story changed frequently between the present and the past, as well as America and China. Asian American women’s writings favor supernatural components. Similarly, Tan adopts ghostly haunting and supernatural elements into this novel. Through Kwan and Olivia, I explore how to seek their individuation.
This thesis is divided into five chapters. In Chapter One, I outline the writing background to The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan and I proceed Jungian theories. Chapter Two discusses Jung’s analytical psychology and focuses on two parts: one is the archetypes and the collective unconscious; the other is the psychic growth of individuation. Chapter Three interprets by Jungian analysis of The Hundred Secret Senses through the experiences of two of the characters in the novel, Olivia and Kwan. I depict Olivia’s awakening and spiritual growth resulting from her journey to China. At the same time, I explore Kwan’s past lifetime which influences her whole life. In Chapter Four, there is a depiction and analysis of the enlightenment stage of human development: individuation. That is a life stage that is attained after developing greater maturity. Finally, in Chapter Five, there is the conclusion which summarizes the reasons why a Jungian perspective is adopted and what value it provides in such literary studies.
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