The Female Bildungsroman by Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston

This study traces the textual construction of identity in the female "Bildungsroman" of Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston. Deploying the -politics of rememory- in their textual representation of female development, Morrison and Kingston unearth the multiple layers of repressed memories, including personal stories, specific cultural history, and racial experience of African- and Asian-American women. This book analyzes the working through of repressed memories in Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" and "Sula," and Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior" and "China Men." The gap between "Bildung" and anti-"Bildung" in these texts highlights the multiple oppression faced by women of color and interrogates the established standards and value system of the hegemonic culture."