Translocation and female subjectivities in four contemporary narratives : Kingston's The woman warrior, Magona's To my children's children and Forced to grow and Hoffman's Lost in translation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Drawing on theories of gender and subjectivity, this thesis explores the way in whichconstructions of modernity as well as tradition are mapped onto geographical localities and thusexpressed through gender acts. The female protagonists in Maxine Hong Kingston's The WomanWarrior, Sindiwe Magona's To My Children's Children and Forced to Grow, as well as EvaHoffman's Lost in Translation undergo either transnational translocation or imaginedtranslocation where they straddle multiple cultural contexts concurrently. The role of globalismand modernity amplifies the female's ambiguous position and therefore challenges her genderidentity as she takes on additional gender characteristics. This challenge, a result of translocation,causes both the individual and collective nature of the subject to be emphasised and placed inmultiple cultures concurrently. The female's subjectivity is under much tension as the culturesshe immerses herself in interlace but also clash. As a result of this, her sense of self is constantlyin flux as she attempts to achieve stability and coherence. This sense of a gendered, stable andlocated self will, I argue, both dissipate and transmutate upon undergoing physical or imaginedtranslocation.In addition, this thesis examines the manner in which globalism allows for the dissolving ofboundaries and explores the extent to which the ambiguous position these female protagonistsoccupy enables them to reformulate and refashion their gender identity as well as writethemselves away from the marginalised positions they inhabit. I will further explore how femalesubjects are compelled to take on additional feminine or masculine attributes upon translocation,seeming to become androgynous in the reformulation of their gender identity for a certain periodof time. I will argue that protagonists supplement their gender in order to obtain a sense ofbelonging in a specific cultural context which requires this alteration of gender, and argue thatthis is also a means by which they liberate themselves from the marginal positions they occupyin their ethnic culture where sexism and prejudice are prevalent. However, I will demonstratethat modernity does not only provide them with liberation and autonomy, but that simultaneouslyit is also restrictive on the subject's gender identity. Finally, this thesis explores whether thefemale protagonists are able to use their ambiguous positioning strategically in order to generate coherence of the self yet, concurrently, maintain fluidity between multiple cultural boundaries of the self.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University