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A Feminist Interpretation Of Woolf And Her To The Lighthouse

Posted on:2004-07-26Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:X Y MeiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360092493319Subject:English Language and Literature
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This thesis is a tentative endeavor to analyze Woolf s feminist thought, with a focus on Woolf's androgynous theory. And a case study is employed to validate Woolf s thought. It connects Woolf s feminist thought with her writing technique-stream of consciousness.After a brief introduction to the present research on Woolf, her life and her works, this thesis focuses on Woolf s feminist thought, which is mainly discussed in her work A Room of One's Own and some of her critical essays. Woolf is much concerned with the position of women, especially professional women, and the restrictions they suffered. In the work A Room of One's Own, Woolf analyzes women's difficulties in detail. She points out, in the patriarchal society, women receive little education and they have to stay in the house. Poverty restricts women's life since they have no independent income. Woolf feels deeply that women's low social position and lack of education make it hardly possible for women to undertake writing activities. So Woolf says, if a woman wants to write, she needs "a room of her own and five hundred a year". Apart from material difficulties, there are various non-material difficulties. One of them is that women writers do not have their own literary tradition. The history is men's in the patriarchal society. As far as language is concerned, Woolf finds that there is not a single ready-made sentence for women writers. The novels of those famous writers all adopt the popular grammar. The sentence belongs to men.A large space of the thesis is devoted to discussing Woolf s androgynous thought. Woolf explores the creative mechanism of human cerebrum. In her opinion, there exist two genders in human cerebrum-male and female. She says that in each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man'sbrain the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain the woman predominates over the man. Androgyny has its physiological and psychological basis. What Woolf emphasizes is that the two genders should be in harmony. As a writing rule which transcends gender, Woolf's androgynous theory has special significance. On the one hand, it embodies the multi-cultural spirit in the 20th and 21st Centuries. On the other hand, androgyny can be considered as a way and a key to solve the problems of women, of the gender relationship.Woolf advocates women's values. Woolf finds that if women want to have their own values, create women's literature or undertake other causes, they have to experience two adventures. One is to "to kill the angel in the room" and find the real self. And the other is to express self. Besides, Woolf thinks that women should develop their special creativities, which is the essential internal element to realize women's value. And women writers should design styles and language suitable for them. Taking A Room of One's Own as an instance, the thesis explores the special style and language of the work, which has a distinguished feminist color.After a thorough description of Woolf's feminist thought, the thesis takes her novel To the Lighthouse for a case study, analyzing it from feminist perspective. The novel To the Lighthouse reflects the dual opposition and difference of the two genders. The Ramsay couple reflect the opposition of intelligence and beauty. They have different characteristics of thinking and different attitudes toward things, reflecting the opposition between culture and nature.Aiming at the gender opposition, Woolf raises doubts and gives some solving methods. The first way is to transpose the unequal levels of men and women. And the other way is to combine characteristics of men and women. Lily is Woolf's androgynous ideal. The Ramsay couple's youngest son, James'character development also reflects a combination of male and female characteristics. And Mr. Ramsay's character development experiences a similar process.In the novel, Woolf uses the technique of stream of consciousness. The author of the thesis believes that there is a close connection between Woo...
Keywords/Search Tags:Virginia Woolf, feminist thought, androgyny, To the Lighthouse, gender opposition
PDF Full Text Request
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