The Struggle for a New Identity: A Study of Taiwanese Feminine Fiction

Abstract

Taiwan's colonial experience in a sense illuminates Taiwanese women's struggle for a new identity. The imperial-colonial dialectic is repeatedly found in contemporary Taiwanese feminine fiction, which can be examined from various perspectives. Firstly, there are recurrent portrayals of haunting memories of the past and the present struggling out of the past. Secondly, scenarios of dominance and submission, conquest and annihilation (or imprisonment) are characteristic of many works. Thirdly, there is vehement affirmation of the value of the peripheral and the marginal and celebration of the struggle toward independence. As a result, diasporic experience and the patterns of journey, quest, and exile are especially relevant in the search for a new identity. Nevertheless, there is a limit to the kind of radical gender discourse contemporary Taiwanese feminine fictions embrace. If radical experimentalism has the virtue of shattering ”woman” as a traditional category, the political efficacy of women's struggle may inadvertently be destroyed in the process of achieving such goals.