Abstract:
This thesis argues for significant correlations in the politics of representation of Chinatown and mother-daughter relationships in two literary texts by Maxine Hong Kingston and Fae Myenne Ng. The two novels do not follow traditional representations of Chinatown and provide critical representations of Chinatown and mother-daughter relationships. First, Kingston's The Woman Warrior reveals how the heroine demystifies a powerful image of her mother and a mystic image of Chinatown in a process of establishing her autonomy. Second, Ng's Bone describes how the heroine tries to free her mother from a dismal image of Chinatown to live her own life outside Chinatown. The analyses of representation of Chinatown and mother-daughter relationships rely on close readings of the textual motifs through a psychoanalytic framework and cultural theories.
