Abstract: While an examination of the Western genre personal essay reveals that the self in the personal essay can always be selected and reshaped, narrative therapy operates in a similar way by replacing the problematic dominant story with a preferred alternative story in order to reconstruct the self, which points to the possible healing function of the personal essay. Adopting the leading narrative therapist Michael White’s theory of narrative therapy, this paper focuses on Maxine Hong Kingston’s essay “No Name Woman” from The Best American Essays of the Century, discussing the complexity and difficulty of searching for an alternative story and reconstructing the forgotten aunt’s life, when restorying happens between dominant knowledges generated by two cultures. This hopefully will complement White’s model based on the system of modern power.

Key Words: Personal Essay; Narrative Therapy; Alternative Story; Unique Outcome.

Writing 4 (Aug. 2021): 65-71.