| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 100 === This thesis aims to uncover the significance of female madness in Asian American contexts through the reading of a few representative “madwomen” in literary texts. I open my thesis with musings on the young Maxine’s deviant no name aunt in The Woman Warrior (1976). Albeit not medically diagnosed as “insane,” with her aberrant behavior—committing adultery and killing herself together with her newborn illegitimate child, she earns the name of a madwoman. A well-known figure in Asian American literature, the no name woman serves as a model for my study of Asian American female madness.
This thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One elaborates the motivation of my study as well as offers a brief review of the theories and criticisms that may shed light on the understanding of Asian American female madness. In Chapter Two I examine the madness of two Japanese women who journey across the Pacific Ocean and become American wives. Hatsue Kato in Wakako Yamauchi’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me” (1976) carelessly lets her youngest child drown and wreaks havoc in her family. I argue that Hatsue is very likely a picture bride as many Issei women are, and that she develops her madness from her inescapable position in between two modes of existence—Necessity and Extravagance. On the other hand, Himiko Hamilton in Velina Hasu Houston’s “Tea” (1983) is a war bride who infamously murders her husband and commits suicide after her only daughter is killed. Judging from the other war brides’ reaction to Himiko’s death, I consider Himiko’s madness to be a transformative force for her war bride community. Chapter Three deals with two women who have been interned in the Japanese American relocation camps during WWII. I contend that Mrs. Yamada in John Okada’s No-No Boy (1957) expresses dissent toward the U.S. government’s racist policy via dissuading her son Ichiro from being drafted. Similarly, I believe that the title character of Hisaye Yamamoto’s “The Legend of Miss Sasagawara” (1950) complains about both the U.S. government’s racism and the harsh living conditions of the internment camps with what her fellow internees deem mad acts. Chapter Four centers upon Hua-ling Nieh’s Mulberry and Peach (1981). I question existing studies’ tendency to pathologize the heroine and assert that the metamorphosis of Mulberry into Peach is the deliberate design of Mulberry/Peach’s to tackle her diasporic situation. Also, I compare Sinocentric, Asian American and feminist readings of Mulberry/Peach’s madness to illustrate Foucault’s idea that madness is a sociopolitical and cultural construct. Finally, by returning to The Woman Warrior, I conclude that the insane have their own language. When given an appropriate form of expression, madness yields meaning. In Asian American contexts particularly, as this thesis shows, female madness pertains to immigration histories and plays a crucial role in the empowerment of the Asian American community.
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