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Abstract Elaine Showalter’s “gynocriticism” refers to a criticism that constructs a female framework for the analysis of women’s literature, to develop new models based on the study of female experience, rather than to adapt male models and theories. Showalter admits that feminist critics have structured their readings of women’s writing in order to identify the unique difference of women’s writing. She argues that, in reading women’s texts, gynocriticism has freely experimented with a wide variety of interpretative tools. It does not prescribe a particular mode of textual analysis, and has made extensive use of post-structuralist insights, especially those having to do with the signification of the feminine. Therefore, this thesis opts to use Susan Lanser’s “feminist narratology” as a method in order to analyze the chosen texts. According to Lanser, narratology provides a foundation for exploring one of the most complex questions for feminist criticism: whether there is indeed a women’s writing, and/or a female tradition, whether men and women do write differently. Therefore, Lanser introduces three elements in which a narratology revised from a feminist perspective in order to draw the major impact of feminism on narratology. These areas are: narrative voice, narrative level and plot. This thesis is divided into four chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. The first chapter handles Showalter’s “gynocriticism” as a theoretical framework. It delineates Lanser’s “feminist narratology” as a method in order to analyze the selected texts. It illustrates also the theme of war diaspora in ethnic American writers as a background. The second chapter delineates the arrangement of the stories in both Dominican-American writers: Julia Alvarez and Junot Díaz’s works as a point of comparison. It examines a feminist naratological analysis of How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents and Drown. The third chapter analyzes the works of both Lebanese-American writers: Etel Adnan and Rabih Alameddine from a feminist narralotogical view. It focuses on the fragmented narrative in Of Cities and Women: Letters to Fawwaz and Koolaids: The Art of War as a point of comparison. The fourth chapter discusses the works of two Chinese-American writers: Amy Tan and Gus Lee. It focuses on the individual stories of The Joy Luck Club and China Boy as a point of comparison. It gives a feminist narratologyical analysis to these two novels. In short, this thesis is an attempt to prove the specificity and uniqueness of the female writings. The female writers rely on presenting a female experiences rather than adopting the methods employed by their male counterparts. |