Smith, Woman Warrior Filitality Discussion Questions
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Arts Humanities
Date
Dec 6, 2023
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Questions to Discuss
The Woman Warrior
Hong Kingston
“Maxine Hong Kingston’s Woman Warrior: Filiality and Woman’s
Autobiographical Storytelling”
Sidonie Smith
1.
Smith points out that Kingston situates “the
origin of her autobiography
in her recollection of . . . [her mother’s] story” about no name aunt (1119).
What is the significance of this according to Smith
?
2.
The “expansion of the aunt’s body and her sense of her own authority to define
herself ultimately challenges the roots of her culture” according to Smith (1120).
Why is this?
3.
In what ways can the aunt’s suicide be viewed as an act of rebellion? (1121)
4.
Smith claims that Kingston “retrieves her aunt from the oblivion of sexuality
repressed and textuality erased by placing her in an alternative narrative” (1122).
What narrative is this?
5.
Why is the story of Fa Mu Lan (as told by Kingston as well as the original legend)
not really subversive? Identify the subversive story embedded in the story of Fa
Mu Lan. (1124)
6.
Smith writes that Brave Orchid’s stories of bravery are “underwritten by an
alternative text of female vulnerability and victimization” (1127).
How does this
affect Kingston? (1127, 1131)
7.
Smith claims that Moon Orchid’s husband’s rejection of her (Moon Orchid) is a
“denial of the very ontological basis on which Moon Orchid’s selfhood is
predicated” (1129). Do you agree with Smith?
8.
Discuss Moon Orchid’s fantasies about “vanishing without a trace” (1129). What
is the meaning of these stories according to Smith? (1129) How do they reflect
Moon Orchid’s character and her situation in life?
9.
What is the “new fiction” that Moon Orchid finds in the mental institution to
“replace the old one”? (1129)
10. According to Smith, Kingston “confronts explicitly the problematics of
autobiographical fictions” in “The Western Palace” (1130): “Both Moon Orchid
and Brave Orchid serve as powerful negative models for the perils of
autobiography” (1131). Discuss the meaning of this statement.
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