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Amy Tan |
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Given the fact that Amy Tan did not publish her first book until 1989, it is not surprising that a substantial body of criticism of her work has yet to accumulate. Also unsurprising, in the light of her subject matter, is that emphasis has been placed on HISTORICAL and SOCIOLOGICAL concerns in her fiction (Walter Shear, "Generational Difference and the Diaspora in The Joy Luck Club," Critique: Spring 1993). PSYCHOLOGICAL criticism also offers a relevant approach to her work, the engagement of one's own ethnicity in the context of the larger American culture and the consequent need to confront one's emotional complexities. GENDER studies provides another avenue of access, through the bringing to light of the buried stories of a generation of suffering and heroic women. For a more extended treatment of Tan's best-known novel, see Melanie McAlister, "(Mis) Reading The Joy Luck Club," Asian America: Winter 1992.
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