Language:
English
In:
Studies in the novel, 2003-04-01, Vol.35 (1), p.89
Description:
[...]through the chain of signifiers set in motion by the Coca Cola icon, Tan's myth not only subverts the authority of cultural symbols, but confirms cultural identity to be discursively constructed. [...]The Joy Luck Club is constructed in such a manner that it has at least four section openings and sixteen chapter openings (four sections each with four chapters). [...]each of the characters has at least two narratives (which with the exception of Suyuan, each narrates herself) and each of these narratives has at least one opening of its own, not necessarily coinciding with the opening pages of a section or a chapter; thus, the number of conceivable structural narrative openings is quite large. [...]the movements from China to the United States and back to China are lateral, significant because of the material effects they have upon the women of Tan's story. [...]the text implies a more complex understanding of the relationship among cultural origins, history, and the development of individual female and cultural identities. [...]although each daughter comes closer to a complete knowledge of her mother, she can never fully achieve her goal, for much of the mother's past is unknowable. [...]the mothers only represent a small portion of the daughters' discursively constructed identities, which are variously formed by the stories their mothers tell, their education in U.S. schools, and their exposure to the media's representations of their cultural heritage. 9 Although many feminist scholars of narrative assert that sequential narrative form is inherently conservative and restrictive, this essay takes the position that narrative form in and of itself is without inherent ideological value; the ideological valences are instead attributable to the "social uses that can be made of [narrative form]," to use Margaret Homan's words (7).
Subject(s):
Feminism ; Tan, Amy
ISSN:
0039-3827
E-ISSN:
1934-1512
Source:
JSTOR Arts & Sciences XI
Source:
MLA International Bibliography with Full Text
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