Date of Award
2008
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Comparative Literature
Supervisor
Dr. Lily Cho
Abstract
This thesis comparatively studies the notion of ghost in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior and Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony, Paper Shadows, and All That Matters. In the theoretical framework of diaspora studies, I argue that the ghosts in these texts serve as metaphors for the ambiguities, complexities, and contradictions of Chinese diasporic experiences in North America. Specifically, they represent Chinese diasporic subjects’ crises concerning home and identity provoked in the process of dislocation and relocation. Taking an anti-essentialist position, I note that the ghosts in question do not originate from certain superstitious national cultures but are fashioned in cultural displacement as cross-cultural creations, constantly articulating the interactions between an intangible homeland and a tangible hostland. Associating the notion of ghost with the politics of belonging, this thesis aims at a historically contextualized understanding of contemporary Chinese diaspora literature in North America.
Recommended Citation
Sun, Pin, "A HAUNTED HOME: GHOSTS IN MAXINE HONG KINGSTON AND WAYSON CHOY" (2008). Digitized Theses. 4256.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4256