SOURCE: "The Naming of a Chinese American 'I': Cross-Cultural Sign/ifications in The Woman Warrior," in Criticism, Vol. XXX, No. 4, Fall, 1988, pp. 497-515.
In the following essay, Li surveys how Kingston establishes a uniquely Chinese-American female identity in The Woman Warrior.
In a span of twelve years since the publication of her first book, The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston has established herself in the American literary canon. Initial recognition of her success is evidenced in such prestigious book awards as the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Woman Warrior (1976) and American Book Award for China Men (1980), fellowships as NEA and Guggenheim, and the appearance of her works in popular college readers as Crossing Cultures, The Conscious Reader and The Bedford Reader. Through the years, we have been witnessing a steady accumulation of critical articles and chapters of scholarly anthologies that express at once a continuous interest in her work and a consensual acknowledgement of her as a major American talent. Recent editions of The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women and The Harpers American Literature have allotted space to selections from The Woman Warrior. Kingston's position in American literature has now been further confirmed by the most current attempt at canonical authorization, the Columbia Literary History of the United States.
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