谭恩美作品中母女关系的研究-中美文化的冲突_英语论文

The Mother-daughter Relationship in Amy Tan’s Work and the Consequence of It: Conflicts between Chinese and American Cultures

摘要

本文以谭恩美的三本小说《喜福会》，《灶神之妻》和《接骨师之女》为样本，分析其作品中母女关系的表现模式以及影响其关系的因素。

研究首先分析了谭恩美作品的不和谐母女关系。母女之间的相互误解以及互相不信任是其关系中冲突的典型表现。此外，研究归纳出影响其母女关系的因素主要为文化差异：中国传统文化以及美国主流价值观的差异。谭恩美作品中每一对母女人物关系都体现出了受中国传统教育影响的母亲与同时受到中美文化影响的女儿间的冲突。

关键词: 谭恩美  母女关系  文化  差异

Abstract

The thesis analyzes mother-daughter relationships and the factors that influence those relationships in Amy Tan’s works based on three of her novels— The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter.

The thesis gives a brief introduction of the inharmonious relationships between mothers and daughter in Tan’s novels. Those understandings from each other and the fact that they cannot trust and depend on each other represent conflicts between those mothers and daughters. And then, it draws the conclusion that what influences their relationships is the cultural difference— difference between the traditional Chinese culture and the main stream American culture. Each pair of mother and daughter in Tan’s novels express the conflicts between the mother who is influence by the traditional Chinese culture and the daughter who is affected by the main stream American culture. 

Keywords: Amy Tan  the mother-daughter relationship  culture  difference 

Contents

1  Introduction 1

1.1   The Significance of the Study 1

1.2 Overall Organization of the Thesis 2

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Domestic Study on Amy Tan's Work 3

2.2　  Overseas Study on Amy Tan's Work 3

2.3　  Selections of Amy Tan's Three Novels 4

2.4    The Theoretical Framework 6

2.5    The Connection between Amy Tan’s Work and Her Work 6

3 Relationships between Chinese Mothers and their American Daughters in Amy Tan’s Three Novels 11

3.1 Misunderstandings between Mothers and Daughters 11

3.2 Daughters’ Loneliness 12

4 Factors that Influences the Relationship between Chinese Mothers and Their American Daughters 14

4.1    Differences between Chinese and Americans Values of Funeral 14

4.2 Chinese People’s Modesty vs Americans’ Self-approval 15

4.3 Chinese Collectivism vs American Individualism 16

4.4 Chinese Parents’ High Expectations to Children vs American Parents “Free-style” Policies 17

Conclusion 18

Acknowledgments 20

References 21