Representing paternal authority in Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan and Shirley Geok-lin Lim

Abstract

This thesis will examine the manner in which paternal authority is represented by Asian American female writers, specifically in Maxine Hong Kingston?s China Men, Amy Tan?s The Joy Luck Club and The Kitchen God?s Wife, and Shirley Geok-lin Lim?s Among the White Moon Faces: Memoirs of an Asian-American feminist. The purpose of my research on these texts is to discover how male figures are represented, the reasons why Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan and Shirley Geok-lin Lim have depicted men the way they do and the implications of their portrayals of paternal authority for the Asian American literary canon.