Memory Restoration: Working through Histories in the North American Chinese Diaspora

From the perspective of psychoanalytic theory, this dissertation attempts to clarify the way and possibility of working through difficult histories in the Chinese diaspora in North America. Considering the discrete nature, fragmentation, mobility, and prevalence of individual and familial units within the diaspora, psychoanalysis provides an advantageous framework for investigating and addressing historical experiences and their aftermath. I examine the contributions of three prominent psychoanalytic theorists, Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, and Donald Winnicott, in order to explore the ways in which their respective theories provide insights into the questions of: what one is working through, what one is working through to, and where one may locate the experiences of working through. Specifically, based on Winnicott’s concepts of ‘use of object’ and ‘transitional space,’ I argue that the use of cultural production, such as fiction, should be considered an integral part of the process of working through histories for the Chinese diaspora. I present three case studies that illustrate the utilization of cultural products from the Chinese diaspora as a means to comprehend their ongoing struggle between the processes of remembrance and forgetting. In my analysis, I consider not only the textual material itself, but also the factors pertaining to the authorship and reception of the text. These factors include situations of diaspora, traumatic experiences, the act of bearing witness, modes of learning, and the diligent endeavours of working through.