The corporality of history : national narratives in Hong Kong and Taiwan female family history writings of the 1990s = 歷史的肉身 : 以九十年代港台女性家族史書寫為中心

Abstract

Throughout the Hong Kong and Taiwan literature published in the 1990s, works striving for the interpretative initiative of native history have developed into a large quantity, due to the intense subjectivity anxiety caused by regime alternation, followed by the power game rooted deeply in these two post-colonial societies at the end of the 20th century. At this stage, female family history writings emerged as a significant literary carrier of the reconstruction of the “lost subjectivity” and the calling for the local identity as Hong Kongers or Taiwanese, guided by the re-imagination of self-identity in the post-colonial era with pluralistic writing strategies internally. This dissertation offers an in-depth analysis on four representative literary works during this period, focusing on the general characteristics shared by female family history writings in the 1990s Hong Kong and Taiwan overlaid with similar context, but also with differences reflecting the two locales' unique historical experiences. Through a detailed analysis on elements of history, culture, class and gender in the female family history writings, this dissertation aims at drafting a comparatively profound and comprehensive outline of the post-colonial narrative strategies utilized by selected contemporary Hong Kong and Taiwan writers in achieving self-identity construction by means of "de-centering". It also reflects on the applicability of certain post-colonial theories in the post-colonial contexts of Hong Kong and Taiwan.