Chapter One Introduction 1.1 Lan Chang and Hunger 1.2 Objectives and research questions 1.3 Research methodology 1.4 Organization of the book Chapter Two Literature Review 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Women in Chinese American literature 2.3 Feminist approaches to literature 2.3.1 Some feminist approaches to literature 2.3.2 Comment 2.4 Feminist stylistics 2.5 The application of SFG to discourse analysis 2.6 Summary Chapter Three Theoretical Foundations 3.1 Introduction 3.1.1 WhySFL? 3.1.2 The nature of SFL 3.2 Some basic theoretical claims of SFL 3.2.1 Stratification 3.2.2 Metafunctional diversification 3.2.3 Transitivity structure 3.3 A functional stylistic analyzing model 3.4 Summary Chapter Four Transitivity Analysis of the Novella 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Transitivity patterns of the novella 4.2.1 Transitivity patterns on the part of the couple 4.2.2 Transitivity patterns on the part of Anna and Tian 4.2.3 Transitivity patterns on the part of Ruth and Tian 4.2.4 Transitivity patterns on the part of Anna and Min 4.2.5 Transitivity patterns on the part of Ruth and Min 4.3 Discussion 4.4 Summary Chapter Five Interpretation: Contextual Analysis 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Context of literary texts 5.3 Contextual analysis: Situation 5.4 Contextual analvsis:Culture 5.5 Summary Chapter Six Conclusion 6.1 Summary of the book 6.1.1 Major contributions of the research 6.1.2 Limitations of the research 6.2 Prospects and suggestions for further research Appendix I Appendix II References