TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”

The Joy Luck Club by the Chinese American author Amy Tan is about the lives of four Chinese women born and raised in China and their American born daughters. The novel has been adapted into a 1993 film with the same name. The lives of the four families, with Chinese immigrant mothers and their Chi...

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Main Author: Deepa Vanjani
Format: Article
Language:Bulgarian
Published: South-West University "Neofit Rilski" Publishing House 2025-03-01
Series:Езиков свят
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Online Access:https://ezikovsvyat.swu.bg/images/stories/issue_23_1_2025/9.%20Vanjani_96-106.pdf
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author Deepa Vanjani
author_facet Deepa Vanjani
author_sort Deepa Vanjani
collection DOAJ
description The Joy Luck Club by the Chinese American author Amy Tan is about the lives of four Chinese women born and raised in China and their American born daughters. The novel has been adapted into a 1993 film with the same name. The lives of the four families, with Chinese immigrant mothers and their Chinese American daughters intersect in the club named ‘Joy Luck Club’ in San Francisco. During this intersection there are issues pertaining to cultural identities, gender, immigrant lives, marginalisation and otherness. Language and its role in shaping identities comes to the fore as Chinese words often surface, as these words express the exact meaning for the mothers, but not so much for the daughters who are English speaking. How Tan puts the racial and cultural identities of the mothers and their daughters under a lens is interesting, for through the lens we see how Otherness manifests itself within the domain of families and outside of them. The present paper investigates ways by which the novel and film depict Otherness and how identities are formed by social interactions. Another area that will be investigated is that of fluidity of linguistic interactions as the author indulges in domestication and code switching.
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publishDate 2025-03-01
publisher South-West University "Neofit Rilski" Publishing House
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series Езиков свят
spelling doaj-art-eeb54f6f40b84e4a80d41845352db77a2025-08-20T02:56:16ZbulSouth-West University "Neofit Rilski" Publishing HouseЕзиков свят1312-04842603-40262025-03-012319610610.37708/ezs.swu.bg.v23i1.9TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”Deepa Vanjani0https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4543-6788PMBG Science College, Devi AhilyaVishwavidyalaya, IndiaThe Joy Luck Club by the Chinese American author Amy Tan is about the lives of four Chinese women born and raised in China and their American born daughters. The novel has been adapted into a 1993 film with the same name. The lives of the four families, with Chinese immigrant mothers and their Chinese American daughters intersect in the club named ‘Joy Luck Club’ in San Francisco. During this intersection there are issues pertaining to cultural identities, gender, immigrant lives, marginalisation and otherness. Language and its role in shaping identities comes to the fore as Chinese words often surface, as these words express the exact meaning for the mothers, but not so much for the daughters who are English speaking. How Tan puts the racial and cultural identities of the mothers and their daughters under a lens is interesting, for through the lens we see how Otherness manifests itself within the domain of families and outside of them. The present paper investigates ways by which the novel and film depict Otherness and how identities are formed by social interactions. Another area that will be investigated is that of fluidity of linguistic interactions as the author indulges in domestication and code switching.https://ezikovsvyat.swu.bg/images/stories/issue_23_1_2025/9.%20Vanjani_96-106.pdfcultural and social identityothernesshomogeneitycultural stereotypesmulticulturalismcode switching
spellingShingle Deepa Vanjani
TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”
Езиков свят
cultural and social identity
otherness
homogeneity
cultural stereotypes
multiculturalism
code switching
title TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”
title_full TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”
title_fullStr TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”
title_full_unstemmed TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”
title_short TRANSLATING OTHERNESS IN AMY TAN’S “THE JOY LUCK CLUB”
title_sort translating otherness in amy tan s the joy luck club
topic cultural and social identity
otherness
homogeneity
cultural stereotypes
multiculturalism
code switching
url https://ezikovsvyat.swu.bg/images/stories/issue_23_1_2025/9.%20Vanjani_96-106.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT deepavanjani translatingothernessinamytansthejoyluckclub