Amy Tan: A Literary CompanionMcFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2004 M09 9 - 240 pages In the mid-1980s, Amy Tan was a successful but unhappy corporate speechwriter. By the end of the decade, she was perched firmly atop the best-seller lists with The Joy Luck Club, with more popular novels to follow. Tan's work--once pigeonholed as ethnic literature--resonates with universal themes that cross cultural and ideological boundaries, and prove wildly successful with readers of all stripes. Tender, sincere, complex, honest and uncompromising in its portrayal of Chinese culture and its affect on women, Amy Tan's work earned her both praise and excoriation from critics, adoration from fans, and a place as one of America's most notable modern writers. This reference work introduces and summarizes Amy Tan's life, her body of literature, and her characters. The main text is comprised of entries covering characters, dates, historical figures and events, allusions, motifs and themes from her works. The entries combine critical insights with generous citations from primary and secondary sources. Each entry concludes with a selected bibliography. There is also a chronology of Tan's family history and her life. Appendices provide an overlapping timeline of historical and fictional events in Tan's work; a glossary of foreign terms found in her writing; and a list of related writing and research topics. An extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index accompany the text. |
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... spirit's prophecy or that he stripped terror from its message to rid him of fear of pain . Superstition about the spirit world recurs in Tan's next two books . Her first children's publication , The Moon Lady ( 1992 ) , describes a ...
... spirit world and for delivering news from the afterlife to the living . A sub- sequent story about Kwan's childhood friend Buncake departs from poignance to ambiguity because of its implication of transmigration of souls after Kwan's spirit ...
... spirit of Precious Auntie , manipulates LuLing's moments of terror by scribbling answers in a sand tray or with the plectrum of a Ouija board . Ruth later doubts that she answered of her own volition . She wonders if " nudges and ...
Contents
Acknowledgments | 1 |
Chronology of Tans Family History Life and Works | 7 |
Tans Genealogy | 31 |
Copyright | |
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