ABSTRACT:Amy Tan is one of the leaders of Chinese American literature. Her first book, The Joy Luck Club, received extraordinary compliments upon publication from literary critics as well as ordinary audience. Therefore, there have appeared many scholars devoted to analyzing this beautiful novel. Generally, they focus on such perspectives as racial issue, sexual discrimination, and defiance against cultural misunderstanding reflected in the novel.
A great majority of the characters in The Joy Luck Club are female; the occasionally-mentioned male characters are all flat. In addition, this is a novel written by a female writer, told by eight female protagonists, and intended, to a large extent, for women readers. For these reasons, I perceive Feminism as the most optimum aspect for exploring the thoughts hidden in the 16 stories.
The first part of this essay is general information about the author’s life and the novel The Joy Luck Club. The former had a profound impact on the composition of the latter. The second and third part teases out the respective struggles of the four pairs of mother-and-daughter on a lateral level while the fourth part summarizes the different relationships among women in different times on a vertical level. The three parts together show that feminism makes progress as time marches forward. The fifth part states the manifestation and features of male chauvinism in different cultures and different times, indicating that it has not been wiped out—it is merely hidden in other forms. Thereout, the conclusion is: despite the progress of Feminism, women in today’s society are still under the pressure of sexual discrimination. To end the essay, I come up with some solutions to help women today to achieve a more rational and self-reliant understanding of their social status.
Key words The Joy Luck Club; Feminism; male chauvinism; oppression; resistance
中文摘要:谭恩美（Amy Tan）是当代美国华裔文学的领军人物，其处女作《喜福会》(The Joy Luck Club,1989)一经发表便引起轰动，受到美国普通读者和文学评论界少有的赞誉。因此近年来，许多学者致力于对该小说的研究，他们主要从种族、社会性别以及反抗文化误读和误解等角度对其作品进行研究。
《喜福会》中出现的角色绝大部分为女性，偶有提及的少数男性均是从侧面进行描写的扁平型人物，加之这篇小说是由一位女性作家通过多个女性的视角写给女性看的作品，因此本文作者认为从“女性主义”的角度探讨此小说为最佳。
本文第一部分简述作者谭恩美生平与小说《喜福会》概况，展现作者自身生活经历对著成该小说的深刻影响。第二和第三部分横向分析和梳理小说中四对母女各自所受的压迫和所做的抗争，第四部分进一步纵向归纳和整理不同年代女性之间在男权压迫的社会背景下的互害或互助关系，揭示女性主义在时代变迁中的进步。第五部分阐述男权压迫在不同文化、不同年代的表现及特征，指出男权压迫并没有消除，而是隐藏起来了。由此，引出结论：女性主义进步的背后，现代女性仍承受着的社会不公；并且提出女性追求男女平等的可尝试的出路，使女性更合理地对自己的社会地位作出心理调整。
关键词：喜福会；女性主义；男权社会；压迫；反抗
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