Born in Stockton, CA in1940 to Chinese-American immigrant parents… She writes about the experiences of 5 Chinese Immigrant women living in the United States and their children, including her own experiences, and how gender and ethnicity affect the lives of women. Each chapter tells the story of a woman in her family.

Maxine Hong Kingston "blends myth, legend, history, and autobiography into a genre of her own invention," - Susan Currier The Woman Warrior is classified as non-fiction. These memoirs are centered around the style of “story-talkers”, a Chinese tradition and genre of oral storytelling that is part fantasy, part reality. The result is "is a species of magical realism, one that continually hovers between fact and the imagination, between what was and what might have been.” -Sanford Pinsker Note: There are no notes on your “go along” page for this slide:

Magical realism is a blend between fiction and non-fiction, making the book difficult to classify for American readers. This caused controversy over how to classify the novel. Some critics say it should be considered fiction because she includes talk-stories, which are a traditional form of exaggerated Chinese storytelling.

Gender roles Silence and Voice Birth and death Culture Clash Fantasy vs. reality Tradition Family Sexuality (appearance & view of body) Seen vs. unseen Superstition Insanity Themes:

Ghosts The Warrior Talk-Story Names/Power of naming Songs/Chants Food

 Animals  Colors (esp. red and gold)  Dragons  Birds  Mountains  Bound Feet  Circles/roundness  Beauty  Paper

 Each student will be assigned a motif or symbol and a tracking chart to keep track of their topic, tracing them throughout the entire novel.  Students will add examples to their chart for each reading.  In discussions, each student is responsible for representing the topic they are tracing to the class during discussions.  At the end of the novel, students will use their charts to write a response analyzing their particular topic.