Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

The Relational Self: Maternal Inheritance and Eurasian Identity in Han Suyin’s The Crippled Tree

Wang, Yusi; Cao, Qing; Nitschke, Claudia

The Relational Self: Maternal Inheritance and Eurasian Identity in Han Suyin’s The Crippled Tree Thumbnail


Authors

Yusi Wang yusi.wang@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy



Abstract

This work examines Han Suyin’s representation of her Eurasian identity in relation to her maternal inheritance, focusing on her autobiography The Crippled Tree, the first volume in the series China: Autobiography, History. Drawing on Paul John Eakin’s concept of relationality in life writing, we consider that Han’s Eurasian identity was formed through her interactions and negotiations with significant others such as her mother. We argue that Han reveals her maternal inheritance in three ways: reconstructing her mother’s subjectivity, recalling her mother’s story, and speaking for her mother: actions that contribute to Han’s self-representation as Eurasian. By intertwining her story with that of her mother, Han shows that her self-identity is relational, and presents the boundaries of the autobiographical ‘I’ as shifting and flexible.

Citation

Wang, Y., Cao, Q., & Nitschke, C. (2023). The Relational Self: Maternal Inheritance and Eurasian Identity in Han Suyin’s The Crippled Tree. Life Writing, 20(3), 563-581. https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2022.2151847

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 20, 2022
Online Publication Date Nov 30, 2022
Publication Date 2023-03
Deposit Date Jan 5, 2023
Publicly Available Date Jan 5, 2023
Journal Life Writing
Print ISSN 1448-4528
Electronic ISSN 1751-2964
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 20
Issue 3
Pages 563-581
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/14484528.2022.2151847
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1184277

Files

Published Journal Article (2 Mb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations