凌丽丽
南宁师范大学 530299
摘要：美国华裔女作家汤亭亭的处女作《女勇士》自1976年发表以来，便引起国内外学者的广泛讨论。它不仅被看作一部文学作品，还被认为是美国研究、历史研究、女性主义研究、族裔属性研究和文化属性研究等领域的重要文化读本。本文试图对近几年国内外学者的讨论做一个综述，以此为基础探寻是否有其他方向的研究可能。
关键词：女勇士、文献综述、研究方向
Maxine Hong Kingston’s debut novel, The Woman Warrior, is made up of five different stories that seem to be separate but connected. The author describes the social features of China through five parts, and also shows the status of Chinese women. The five stories are more like the author’s autobiography than a fusion of traditional Chinese folklore. It shows the local culture of China to the world and makes more Chinese people understand the hardship of Chinese Americans living in the United States.
Since its publication in 1976, The Woman Warrior has attracted extensive attention and active discussion in the academic community. It is not only widely discussed as a literary work, but also regarded as an important cultural book in the fields of American research, historical research, feminist research, ethnic attribute research and cultural attribute research. Therefore, the study of The Woman Warrior is of great theoretical and practical significance. This paper attempts to make a summary of the discussion of scholars at home and abroad in recent years, and on this basis to explore whether there are other research possibilities.
1. Discussion of Feminism
The five stories in The Woman Warrior are all narrated with women as the protagonists, so it is common to discuss the feminism in The Woman Warrior. In 2009, Zhao Cuiping published “Feminism in the Interpretation of The Woman Warrior from Chinese Traditional Culture”, and selected two stories of The Woman Warrior to explain the feminism expressed by Maxine Hong Kingston. Especially in the interpretation of the article “White Tigers”, she thinks “ Maxine Tang adopts the story of Fa Mulan and Yuefei’s Mother Tattooing His Back, which is not a pure Chinese story loyal to Chinese traditional culture. However, the original characters and plots were greatly modified by adding, deleting, shifting and rewriting, which successfully created an American heroine Hua Mulan with distinct Western feminist consciousness. In fact, these two literary allusions or Chinese myths have become the carrier for her to carry forward and interpret the unique feminism of Chinese American women in the imagination space of China, and her feminism thought is expressed through the rewriting of the traditional Mulan story[5].” In 2012, Nie Jingsi published a study of “Female Identity in The Woman Warrior from the Perspective of Feminism”, which also pointed out that in The Woman Warrior, Maxine Tang made great efforts to construct the female subject status, and found the subject status of herself in the imagination and simulation of the two female heroes Fa Mulan and Cai Yan. At the same time, she thinks “ In Maxine Hong Kingston’s female writing, the main line of awakening of female consciousness develops from the initial silent state to the stage of seeking the right of speech, then to the state of struggle, and finally presents an open style of ‘cultural communicator’. The subject consciousness has not been lost in the text. Although women’s true feelings are suppressed under the influence of patriarchal ideology and racial discrimination, they still actively pursue their main identity[6].” In 2013, Zhu Dan also argued in her paper “Feminist Interpretation of Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior” that Maxine Hong Kingston, through the creation of The Woman Warrior, longed for gender equality in the society. She pointed that “ All the female figures in the fiction The Woman Warrior are a strong voice from the bottom of their hearts of Chinese American women to strive for the independence and female identity as well as gender liberation in such a specific time period[7].”
2. Discussion of Cultural Identity
As a Chinese American writer, Maxine Tang grew up in two different cultural environments in China and the United States. Her uncertainty and exploration of her cultural identity are vividly displayed in The Woman Warrior. In 2009, Tang Xiaosha mentioned in her paper “ Culture Identity in The Woman Warrior, The Chickencoop Chinaman, The Year Of The Dragon and Donald Duk ” that the cultural identity of Chinese American writers is changeable. She pointed that “ Although Chinese America is visible now, Chinese American writers are nevertheless confronted with a dilemma: if they eradicate their ethnic difference, they would lose a point of distinction that would help them gain a niche in multicultural America; but to emphasize their ethic marker seems to go further away from being regarded as American[2].” In 2010, Laura Cutler Aoki published a paper called “ Silence, Ghosts, and Dragons: Language, Culture, and Identity in The Woman Warrior ”, which proposed that “ Tang forms an identity by incorporating several aspects of her bicultural background, and she ultimately realizes that communication, in the form of writing, is her strategy to enforce her identity[3].” In 2014, Song Runjuan and Li Lihui published “The Cultural Identity Construction of The Woman Warrior from the Perspective of Postcolonial Translation”, which also mentioned that “the nature of cultural identity is changing and flowing, and it will be influenced by the change of the position of the identity[8].” They also believe that “Chinese American writers have a unique attitude towards Chinese culture. Because of the diaspora culture formed in two cultures, they mainly adapted the Western value standard to the traditional Chinese culture, it is to create a unique cultural identity by means of the creative translation of Oriental culture, so that it can be recognized by the Native American culture[8]. ”
3. Discussion of Cultural Differences
Maxine Tang’s special dual cultural background allows her to use a unique cultural perspective to analyze and deconstruct the cultural differences between China and the United States. In 2014, Zhang Yan published “From The Woman Warrior to See The Cultural Differences between China and the United States”. The article pointed out that “there are great differences between the lifestyle and personality characteristics of the people of China and the United States. For example, Americans value individualism and personal development. In China, people tend to develop in groups. This huge cultural difference is fully reflected in the woman warrior[9]. ” “ At the same time, The Woman Warrior also contrasts women’s status in traditional Chinese culture with that of contemporary Chinese American women who are deeply influenced by American culture, so as to reflect the obvious differences between Chinese and American cultural concepts[9]. ” In 2016, Wei Qin published “Cultural Conflict and Integration in The Woman Warrior ”, which also pointed out that “different cultures get along in different ways. Cultural differences are bound to be reflected in all aspects[10]. ” But at the same time, she believes that Maxine Tang is also seeking cultural integration between China and the United States in her article. “For Chinese American born in the United States, it is inevitable to encounter cultural shock.” she said, “ Maxine Hong Kingston tells the story of the protagonist’s pursuit of the American dream and identity in a tone of combination of the East and the west, which proves that Maxine Hong Kingston inherits a lot of Chinese content, but she looks at the world in a different way from the Chinese people[10]. ” Coincidentally, it is also mentioned in “ Confronting Difference, Confronting Difficulty: Culture Wars, Canon Wars, and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior ” published by Kristin Matthews, she said that “ To ‘confront people who are difficult and keep your eyes open’ is to acknowledge difference and disagreement in order to see more clearly[4].”
In summary, as a landmark novel in the history of Chinese American literature, The Woman Warrior has great research value in all aspects. It can be seen that the current academic research on The Woman Warrior biased towards literature. And the blending of Chinese and Western cultures and the similarities and differences of Chinese and western language expression in the works are also a good research direction. We can also try to analyze the work The Woman Warrior from the perspective of linguistics to make its literary charm and value more fully manifested.
Bibliography
[1]Maxine Hong Kingston. (1976). The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts [M]. Vintage
[2]Tang Xiaosha. (2009). Culture Identity in The Woman Warrior, The Chickencoop Chinaman, The Year Of The Dragon and Donald Duk [D]. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong: 108
[3]Laura Cutler Aoki. (2010). Silence, Ghosts, and Dragons: Language, Culture, and Identity in The Woman Warrior [D]. California State University Dominguez Hills: 91
[4] Kristin Matthews. (2016). Confronting Difference, Confronting Difficulty: Culture Wars, Canon Wars, and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior [J]. Reading America: 131-153
[5]赵翠平. (2009). 从中国传统文化解读《女勇士》的女权主义 [J]. 太原城市职业技术学院学报, (10):172-174
[6]聂静斯. (2012). 基于女性主义视野下《女勇士》女性身份研究 [J]. 雕龙学札: 01-03
[7]朱丹. (2013). 汤亭亭《女勇士》的女性主义解读中 [D]. 曲阜师范大学:33
[8]宋润娟, 李丽辉. (2014). 从后殖民翻译角度看《女勇士》的文化身份构建 [J]. 作家
[9]张燕. (2014). 从小说《女勇士》看中美文化差异 [J]. 山东工会论坛, (3):163-164
[10]魏琴. (2016). 《女勇士》中的文化冲突与融合 [J]. 名作欣赏: 89-91