With their recognition of Maxine Hong Kingston as a major literary figure, some critics have suggested that her works have been produced almost ex nihilo, saying that they lack a large traceable body of direct literary antecedents especially within the Chinese American heritage in which her work is embedded.
Topic
The literary roots of Maxine Hong Kingston's work, and her place in the Chinese oral tradition of "talk-story."
Framework
Highlight Noteworthy. The author flags critics who treated Kingston as having no literary antecedents, then argues she has deep roots in a long-standing oral tradition that those critics simply weren't looking at.
Main Point
Critics who say Kingston's work appeared ex nihilo are wrong because they only examined written texts. Her work is firmly rooted in the centuries-old Chinese oral tradition of talk-story — a tradition Kingston herself identifies with and whose conventions show up clearly in her writing.
P1: The critics' mistake
Some critics call Kingston's work nearly without literary precedent. But they only looked at written texts; they overlooked her connection to the Chinese tradition of song and spoken narrative called talk-story (gong gu tsai).
P2: What talk-story is
Traditionally performed in dialect within families, it rarely appears in print. The tradition reaches back to Sung dynasty storytellers and has been continually revitalized in the U.S. by waves of immigration. Kingston's work in English is talk-story embracing new subject matter and forms.
P3: Kingston's self-conception
Kingston sees herself as one in a long line of talk-story performers. Her storytelling sifts and reconstructs essential elements rather than retaining precise word sequences (the way print culture does), and she views "writer" as synonymous with "singer" or "performer" — a transmitter and creator of stories whose printed form is just one frozen stage.