Maxine Hong Kingstons No Name Woman Essay examples -- Chinese Society

Maxine Hong Kingstons No Name WomanA highly fictive text whose non-fiction label gives the appearance of being an existing histrionics of Asian American experience in the broader public sphere. (Gloria Chun, The utmost Note)Such a disparaging remark about the conduct nature of Maxine Hong Kingstons The Woman Warrior has been readily refuted, notably by Leilani Nishime, who proposes in her move En gendering Genre... that it is a text that transcends genre confines it challenges traditional definitions of genre and demands redefinitions. whatever the case, No Name Woman (NNW) is remarkable in the way the reviewer is given a candid social commentary in the pretension of an intriguing tale of scandal and oppression. In a vivid representation of traditional Chinese society, Kingston artfully manipulates perspective, or more competently character filter (Chatman, Reading autobiography Fiction 130), to reflect the culture of an entire society in the vicissitudes of one familys lif e.The opening scene itself suggests the construction of the entire story we are immediately presented with a tragic story-in-a-story, or framed-narrative (Chatman, 97), of the narrators adulterous aunt. Somehow, the events viewed in retrospect through the eyes of the narrators traditional, conservative capture seem skewed and moralistic, rendered with an objective, instructive voice which complements the primary narrators didactic tones as she takes over the discussion from her mother following the opening tale. A bitty later on, the filter switches almost seamlessly over to that of the aunt, in a radically different retelling of her tale by the (primary) narrator (14). Such smooth filter-character transitions come frequently throughout the text... ...le viewpoints, overlapping timelines and a dominating, though largely implied narrators (possibly authors) tar work together to present Kingstons unique view of gender roles and their assimilation into Chinese-American culture a far-reaching yet intimate projection of her history, society and self.BibliographyChatman, Seymour. layer and Discourse Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. Ithaca Cornell UP, 1980.Reading Narrative Fiction. Ed. Seymour Chatman. New York Macmillan, 1993.Chun, Gloria. The High Note of the Barbarian Reed Pipe Maxine Hong Kingston. diary of Ethnic Studies 19.3 (Fall 1991) 85-95.Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior Memoirs Of A Girlhood Among Ghosts. London Picador, 1981.Nishime, LeiLani. Engendering genre gender and nationalism in China Men and The Woman Warrior. MELUS20.1 (Spring 95) 67-85.