Transitivity and Narrative Therapy in The Woman Warrior

Abstract

Since its publication in 1976, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior has aroused widespread concerns and discussions in both China and abroad. This book is regarded as the pioneering work of Contemporary Chinese American literature and a masterpiece of feminism, relevant research serves to figure out the dilemma from which the Chinese American females suffered, as well as their struggle to fight against the racial and sexual discrimination attached to them. The present study is concerned with the identity of the Chinese Americans represented by Kingston herself as well as the author’s purport of adapting ancient Chinese tales, while ignoring the process of the protagonist’s self-awakening and how she employed narration to reconstruct her identity and getting access to education and power. This paper will focus on the therapeutic properties of narration in The Woman Warrior with the assistance of transitivity analysis, which illustrates that transitivity can reveal a character’s thinking pattern and that narration can help the narrator perceive the world in a more positive way and gain the necessary strength to fight for her own rights.