浅析任璧莲小说《典型的美国佬》中的身份认同

On Identity in Gish Jen's Novel Typical American——Every American is American

"我是谁"是自美国建国以来一直萦绕于美国人,尤其是美国少数族裔心头的身份难题。主流霸权文化往往将少数族裔的外在生理特征本质化来定义美国少数族裔,使他们成为不同于美国白人的永久的"他者"。而华裔美国作家任璧莲质疑主流文化中固有的种族概念,在其小说《典型的美国佬》中通过讲述华人移民的美国故事,阐明了族裔身份认同是文化属性自由选择的结果,表明了她对人人都是美国人的身份认同,最终超越了美国白人的认同主题。

Since the founding of the United States,＂Who I am？＂ has been a question lingering on the Americans,especially on ethnic minorities.The mainstream hegemonic culture used to essentialize the external physical characteristics of ethnic minorities to define the identities of those ethnic Americans,making them the permanent ＂otherness＂,different from the American whites.In her novel,the Chinese-American writer Gish Jen questioned racial identity which had always been popular in the mainstream culture,redefined ethnic identity in terms of free choice of cultural property by telling an American story of Chinese immigrants,and illustrated her insights into American identity that ＂every American is American＂,going beyond conventional identity of minorities in the whites＇ eye.