- 期刊
Mother-Daughter Relationships and Chinese American Dialectics in Amy Tan’s ＂The Joy Luck Club＂
譚恩美《喜福會》中的母女關係與華美身分辯證
摘要
本文首先簡介母女關係的性質與一些重要論點，以及母女關係如何體現族裔身分認同與同化間的緊張狀況。接著分析備受矚目的暢銷作家譚恩美，如何在《喜福會》中，藉由描繪複雜的母女關係，來探索華美身分認同的辯證。由三位母親與四位女兒講訴的故事所組成的《喜福會》，可說是瑪俐安．赫絮（MarianneHirsch），所憧憬的母/女情節的最佳例證。本文認為中國出生的喜福會母親們，和她們美國出生的女兒們之間的關係，與這些女兒和她們華美身分認同的關係類似，都充滿矛盾，也都具有反抗、衝突、矛盾、認可與和好的模式。此外，中國性質（或本土文化主義）與美國性質（或同化）間的界限，就如同母女間的界限，是流動的。本文主張中國移民母親，和美國化的女兒，都是中國文化與美國文化的混種，而母女關係對於母親與女兒，皆可以是一股能強化她們確立華裔美籍身分認同的力量。本文提出譚恩美在每部分標題頁後的小故事裡，已經展示整本小說的主題，例如：以充滿衝突的母女關係來比喻女性族裔身分認同、文化身分認同的混種性、以及顯現出母女可以互相教導如何做到最好與體驗喜樂，如此更對等、對母女彼此皆是強化力量的母女關係的願景。
並列摘要
This paper starts with a brief introduction on the nature of and some theoretical approaches toward the mother-daughter relationship, which embodies the tension between ethnic identity and assimilation. It analyzes how Amy Tan, who has ”claimed America” with the success and popularity of her works, explores the dialectics of Chinese American identities through the portrayal of complicated mother-daughter relationships in ”The Joy Luck Club”, which exemplifies Marianne Hirsch's vision of a mother/daughter plot with stories told by both mothers and daughters. The paper argues that the relationships between the Chinese-born Joy Luck mothers and their American-born daughters parallel those between the daughters and their Chinese American identities-in both, ambivalence dominates. They are characterized by patterns of resistance, conflict, ambivalence, reconciliation, recognition, and connection. In addition, the boundary between Chineseness (or nativism) and Americanness (or assimilation) is fluid, just like that between mother and daughter. The paper claims that both Chinese immigrant mothers and Americanized daughters are hybrids of Chinese and American cultures and that the mother-daughter relationship can be an empowering force for both mothers and daughters to establish their identities as Chinese Americans. The paper proposes that Tan lays out the themes of her novel in the short stories that follow the headings of each of the four sections, for example, the mother-daughter relationship, which is fraught with conflicts, as a trope for female ethnic identity, the hybridization of cultural identities, and the vision of a more reciprocal and mutually empowering relationship between mother and daughter, in which both can teach each other how to be their best and experience joy.