Abstract

Amy Tan is an influential Chinese-American writer in the world, and The Joy Luck Club is her first novel first published in 1989. It was an instantly hit then and has remained on the New York Times best-seller list for nine months time. Since then, she published The Kitchen God’s Wife in 1991, The Hundred Secret Senses in 1995, The Bonesetter’s Daughter in 2001 and Saving Fish From Drowning in 2005 consecutively. In addition, her collection of non-fiction essays The Opposite of Fate---A Book of Musings  came out in 2003.  

    And Amy Tan has also been considered as one of the most important Chinese-American writers after Maxine Hong Kingston. Loaded with great expectation from fans around the world, the story was adapted into a movie shortly after its publication.  This is a story about four pairs of Chinese immigrants mothers and daughters. Since the mothers are influenced deeply by traditional Chinese culture and quite conservative in some degree, while their American born daughters are quite the opposite. Then their process of getting compromised on the conflict makes the whole story. Scholars have also been attracted to the study of the novel. However, most of the study focus on the cultural conflict and is lack of systemic research. The purpose of the thesis is to study the novel from the perspective of feminism to extend the study scope. Through the study from the perspective of feminism, the author will try to conclude that feminism study on The Joy Luck Club can enrich the study angels in the this field.

Key words: Amy；The Joy Luck Club, feminism

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-3

1.1 Introduction of Amy Tan-3

1.2 Introduction of The Joy Luck Club-4

1.3 Introduction of Structure of the Thesis-5

2. Literature Review-5

2.1 Controversy on The Joy Luck Club Abroad-5

2.2 The Mother-daughter Relationships in The Joy Luck Club-6

2.3 Rationale of this Thesis-8

3. Feminism in The Joy Luck Club-9

3.1 Definition of Feminism-9

3.2 Application of Feminism in The Joy Luck Club-9

3.2.1Social Issues in Feminism-9

3.2.2 Moral Issues in Feminism-11

3.2.3Attitudes in Money in Fiminism-13

4. Conclusion-15

Acknowledgments-15

References-16