本論文以珊卓拉‧西斯奈洛斯的《家住芒果街》和《喊女溪》為材料，探討女性角色在三種不同階段的自我追尋過程裡，女性自我的形成和成長經驗的相互關係。論文分為三個部分，第一章聚焦女性角色的身分認同，討論女性角色如何在不同的成長階段裡建立兩種不同的認同方式─他們從小女孩時期學會以「根源」(root)模式建立自我認同，進而到成年女性時期以「路徑」(route)模式建立自我認同。第二章探討女性角色在社會上的自我尋求，分析為何多數女性角色的社會空間是僵化和穩固及某些女性角色如何面對克服困境尋求更多的可能性和發展性。第三章探討女性角色自我理念的實踐。包括兩個議題：一、討論女性角色在凝視的經驗裡，如何回應他人的期待及這些期待如何影響他們的自我理念實踐；二、討論女性角色們在移居到新國度後的離散經驗，以及如何面對困境去實踐自我理念。

This thesis aims to examine Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, and investigate female characters’ development of self-discovery as related to diverse experiences. This thesis is divided into three chapters. In Chapter One, “Awareness of Self: Identity, Recognition, Difference,” I explore the development of awareness of self in the growing experiences. The growing awareness of self is related to three concepts about self—identity, difference and recognition. I elaborate two types of formations of identity. In the first stage, they learn to locate their identity by “root formation.” In the second and third stage, they locate their identity by “route formation.” In Chapter Two, “Searching for Female Social Space,” I investigate the female characters’ quest for social growth by analyzing their different experiences of social space. I analyze how and why some female characters’ social space is fixed and stable, while others overcome social restriction and extend their social space. In Chapter Three, “Practices of Ideas of Self: Experiences of Gaze and Diaspora,” I analyze the female characters’ practices of ideas of self and how the practices are related to the experiences of gaze and diaspora. In discussing the experiences of gaze, I analyze how they respond to other people’s expectations and how such expectations influence their practices of ideas of self. In discussing the experiences of diaspora, I focus on the female characters’ challenges and difficulties in adapting to the immigrant country.

Introduction                                                          1
Chapter One: Self-awareness: Identity, Recognition, Difference             17
I.	The First Stage                                                   20
II.	The Second Stage                                               29
III.	The Third Stage                                                  34
Chapter Two: Searching for Female Social Space                           39
I.	Stable Social Space                                               39
II.	Extensive Social Space                                          51
Chapter Three: Practices of Ideas of Self: Experiences of Gaze and Diaspora     62
I.	Experiences of Gaze                                              63
II.	Experiences of Diaspora                                        73
Conclusion                                                         81
Work Cited                                                         87

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. Print.
---.  Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. New York: Random House, 1991. Print.
Cixous, Helene. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Critical Theory Since 1965. Ed. Hazard Adams. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1986. 309-320. Print. 
Clifford, James. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1997. Print.
De Valdes, Maria Elena. “In Search of Identity in Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street.” Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York, NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2010. 3-18. Print.
Dunn, Maggie, and Ann Morris. “Chapter 1: The Composite Novel: Naming and Defining a Developing Genre.” The Composite Novel: The Short Story Cycle in Transition. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995. 1-19. Print.
Doyle, Jacqueline. “Haunting the Borderlands: La Llorona in Sandra Cisneros’s ‘Woman Hollering Creek.’” Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies 16.1. Print.
Eysturoy, Annie. “The House on Mango Street: A Space of Her Own.” Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations: Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York, NY: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2010. 61-79. Print. 
Friedman, Susan Stanford. “Routes/Roots: Boundaries, Borderlands, and Geopolitical Narratives of Identity.” Mappings: Feminism and the Cultural Geographies of Encounter. United Kingdom: Princeton UP, 1998. 151-178. Print.
Kalra, Virinder S., Raminder Kaur, and John Hutnyk. Diaspora and Hybridity. London: Sage, 2005. Print.
Martin, James. “Identity.” Cultural Geography: A Critical Dictionary of Key Concepts. London: I.B. Tauris, 2005. 97-102. Print.
Nagel, James. “Sandra Cisneros’s Cuentitos Latinos: The House on Mango Street.” Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle: The Ethnic Resonance of Genre. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001. 104-127. Print.
Santana, Sandra, and Felipe O. Santana. An Introduction to Mexican Culture for Rehabilitation Service Providers. Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange, 2001. Print.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. “The Look.” Being and Nothingness. Washington Square Press, 1984. 252-302. Print.
Woodward, Kathryn. Identity and Difference. London: Sage, 1997. Print. 
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1945. Print.