우생학의 눈으로 바라 본 킹스턴의 『여인무사』

초록

This study aims to reveal the truth of immigration to the United States by investigating the fetters of life from which a Chinese woman suffers as a second-class citizen and social minority in the history of immigration to the United States of America, focusing on Asian minority races in 1940's-1960's through The Woman Warrior who is a Chinese American writer, Maxine Hong Kingston's maiden work. The main purpose of this study is to observe the fact that the race problem was a key issue in the study of immigration to U.S.A and examine the experience of the minority race's immigration through the Chinese woman. As the immigration was a key mechanism to form the nation, it can be said that it is very important study theme in order to examine the national identity of USA. Nevertheless, the racial elements have not been stressed very much in the researches of American immigration. Moreover, it is very difficult to find the studies on the ethnic minorities’ problem which is inseparably related to the race problem, especially non-European ethnic minorities' immigration. Among immigrants, African-Americans and Asian-Americans had to endure discrimination for a long time on the ground of their languages and physical appearances, which was the inevitable consequence of the racism running throughout American history. Furthermore, American racism exerted a strong influence on the immigration policy or the legislation process. In this social climate, many people who came to America tried to act like the whites, think like the whites and say like the whites in order to get out of discrimination, and Kingston's The Woman Warrior clearly shows their hard life of iscrimination and prejudice, which was caused in the process of assimilation of the immigrants' settlement in America. As Kingston showed in her autobiographical novel skillfully, USA was the epicenter of another trauma, where discrimination and prejudice were exposed rather than the nation of freedom and opportunities, which will be a reason why we should deal with the racial elements as one of the most essential subjects in the research on American immigration.

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