| 摘要: | 一個人的身分不只是由他個人所決定，而是經由社會和他個人經驗所定義的。當一群人被訂定義為擁有相同的特質時，就會產生所謂的刻板印象。也就是說，與他們擁有相同特質的人，都會被冠上相同的身分。在一個人的身分被其他人所定義時我們要想的問題是他如何，從何，為何被如此定義。早在他們能夠建構出自己的身份之前，她們的身分其實早就已經被種種的外在因素所定義了。
在這篇論文中，我將討論在二十世紀中，在父權社會這樣一個性別不平等且對女性不友善的社會底下生活的女人們如何能夠建構出屬於自己的身分，其中的重點將放在女性如何獨立自主而不依靠男性。本篇論文利用譚恩美《接骨師的女兒》來做為參考以及證據的來源。這本小說描寫經歷父權壓迫下的三位女主角們分別在內戰前後的中國社會以及在今日的被視為非常重視男女平等的美國社會中女性所受到的不平等待遇，以及她們所展現出來不屈服於父權體制以及對抗父權壓迫的力量。本篇論文也同時將探討在《接骨師的女兒》一書中男性與女性之間的不平等待遇，並分析女性如何在這樣的結構中發展及建立出屬於女性自我的身分。
本篇論文分為四個主要的章節：在第一章中解釋了我的研究動機，以及與父權相關文獻回顧；並簡介譚恩美小說《接骨師的女兒》的內容，和對接下來的論文章節做概括的介紹。第二章中將分析小說中的三位女主角的故事，主要討論她們在父權壓迫下的生活體驗以及其中相似的部分與差異性。在第三章中，我將與父權相關的理論套用到書中三位女主角的生活上，目的是為了分析父權系統與女性自我認同和建構自我身分的建構的關係。第四章結論中整合了在前面章節中所提出來的理論以及將其與女主角們的生活做連結後得出結果：只要女性本身擁有足夠讓他們獨立自主並且生存下來的能力，在加上她們身為女人與生俱來的力量，結合這幾樣他們就有能力抵抗父權所施加在他們身上的壓迫，最終便可以再這樣的系統底下能夠不依靠他人，尤其是對男性或是其他父權中的權威角色，建立起屬於自己的身分。
His or her identity is the center of a person’s experience and the source of his or her meaning. It enables the process of the construction of meaning on the basis of cultural attributes, or a related set of cultural attributes. In fact, all identities are themselves constructed: the main questions are how, from what, and for what? The social construction of identity always takes place in a context marked by power relationships; to construct his or her desired identity, an individual processes building materials taken from power apparatuses, from productive and reproductive institutions, from collective memory, from personal fantasies and from history, and reconstructs their meaning according to social determinations and cultural projects that are rooted in their social structure and framework.
In this thesis, I will be arguing that women can construct their own identity whilst living under patriarchy, a social system that still prevails even in most modern societies, not to mention the less developed ones, during the twentieth century. My focus is on women’s ability to become self-reliant rather than dependent on men. I will primarily be utilizing Amy Tan’s novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter as both a point of reference and source of evidence. The novel shows the forces of patriarchal oppression experienced by all three major female characters. It displays examples of the unequal treatment of women in both pre-modern and modern Chinese society as well as in modern American society. This thesis also intends to probe into the unequal situation of men and women in The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and to explore how the three main female characters experience their own subjectivities and begin to construct an independent female identity within patriarchal system.
My thesis is composed of four chapters. The first chapter explains the motivation for my research, and provides a literature review on the issue of patriarchy, a synopsis of the novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and a general introduction to the four chapters of my thesis. The second chapter focuses on the three female characters in the novel, mainly with regard to the similarities and differences between and among their life experiences under patriarchal oppression. Chapter three applies the major theories about patriarchy to the three female characters’ lives, in order to analyze the relationships between the patriarchal system and female identity construction. The last chapter discusses the key prerequisite to women’s constructing their own unique identity under the oppression of the patriarchal system: they can construct a desired identity of their own if they can be free of attachment to others, especially to men. |
