中國母親與美國女兒：譚恩美作品中女性與揉雜性身份歸屬

Chinese Mother and American Daughter: Female and Hybrid Identity in Amy Tan's Writing

In recent Chinese American literature, many writers from the second Chinese immigrant generation have their works published, and among them, Amy Tan is one of the most successful. At the center of Tan's works lies the issue of the hybrid identity of the female protagonists, who abide in what E. D. Huntley names -'border land'- a bicultural territory where these hybrid characters are forced to dwell. The Chinese American characters in Tan's narratives are impelled to confront their problematic identity of duality, namely, of being Chinese and American at the same time. My paper will examine how female protagonists in Tan's novels acquire or create an identity within a multi-layered social and cultural context. The search for identity involves ethnicity and nationality; while the first immigrant generation is still regarded as Chinese, the second immigrant one is Chinese American. Differences between these two generations result in cultural conflicts, and while Tan's Chinese mothers intend to transmit Chinese culture to their Americanized daughters, the cultural discordance aggravates. I would like to discuss the struggles resulted from the identity of the hyphenated fictional characters, how they move between one identity and another, whom they identify with, why the contradiction happens, and when and where they solve their emotional conflicts. I would also employ feminist theories to analyze their intentions, confrontations and identity confusion, whilst recognizing that theories, evolved in an American context may not answer all the complexity opened up by these representations. In this way, I hope to find out how the identity of the Chinese American women is constructed, complicated and rebuilt through self-disclosure.在當代華裔美國文學中，譚恩美是移民第二代作家裡十分成功的一位。其作品的核心之一為女性主角的揉雜性身份認同，因為她們通常都處於雙文化的邊陲地帶。在譚恩美的書寫裡，這些角色必須面對自己具有中國與美國身份這樣衝突的雙重性。本篇論文將檢視在譚恩美的小說中，女性主角如何於多重社會及文化背景下取得或創造身份認同。這樣的追尋過程牽涉了族性與國籍問題，就當移民第一代仍被視為華人時，第二代已被認為是華裔美國人，這兩代之間的差異造成了文化衝突，尤其是譚恩美筆下的中國母親企圖將中國文化傳承到自己美國化的女兒身上時，文化對立更形加劇。筆者將探討這些小說主角經歷的掙扎、她們如何從一個身份歸屬轉化到另外一個、她們認同的對象為何、為什麼矛盾會產生以及她們在何時何處解決了情感上的衝突。筆者亦將運用女性主義理論以分析主角的意圖和身份歸屬問題。如此，本篇論文希冀能釐清美籍華裔女性之複雜的身份歸屬是如何建立以及經由個人自我揭露後，是如何重新組織的。