Negotiating the Geography of Mother-Daughter Relationships in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

Abstract

Contemporary readers may also relate to the concept that past relationships must always influence present personal interactions. They may also discover . . . that one's inability to translate the past may have negative implications for present and future relationships. The mother-daughter relationships in both China and the United States represented in The Joy Luck Club not only provide a link between the past and the present but also suggest how the ability, or the inability, for mothers and daughters to share geographically informed cultural stories influences both mother-daughter relationships and individual and cultural identity. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]