Gillian Verin: A Mirror Of Power Relations And Women's Desires

All along, Gillian Flynn’s novels have been misunderstood because of the external characteristics of Genre Fiction which are opposite to the principle of the creation of feminist novels that people always think Feminist Novel writing is on the way of artistic originality and pioneer ideas. However, in the twentieth century, inspired by the thought of Post Modernism and the diversified development of Contemporary Feminist Criticism, feminists eager to expand the influence of feminist thoughts among the public and to change the inferior position of female in male-dominated fields of culture(In the mainstream culture, women are deprived of discourse right because of men’s reason, order and clarity). In this regard, feminists put forward a specific writing strategy Feminist Genre Fiction. But it is regrettable that although to some extent this form of writing has achieved the expected effects, it has always been the subject of double discrimination. First it is placed outside the main body of Feminist Fiction, and second it is excluded from the classic standard of mainstream literature, it is the same with the Flynn’s novel. Essentially Feminist Genre Fiction is not feminist novel?However, this paper does not wish to address this predicament. Instead of external contradiction of literature concepts, the paper focuses on how Flynn’s novels characterized by power relations and how to view the corresponding implicit desire of women in Gillian Flynn’s novels from another new perspective of cultural studies. Cultural studies theory emphasizes on the Cultural Metaphor Function of the fictional texts and the interaction between literature and society. Under the premise of the theory, we may bypass the problem of the nature of Feminist Genre Fiction, and study on internal conflict of Gillian Flynn’s novels to demonstrate that women in cultural relations, and how social relations of inequality subtly affect the characterization of female writer, and how it is reflected in the representation of Gillian Flynn’s novels.Finally, it is necessary to note that in order to avoid falling into the debate on "non-solving" problem (Feminist Genre Fiction in the end is not a part of the feminist novels) which deviates from the focus of the paper, we assume Gillian Flynn is engaged in non-conscious feminist creation. For this purpose, the thesis is divided into three chapters:The first chapter leaves the issue of nature of Feminist Genre Fiction unsolved for the moment and goes on to clarify Gillian Flynn’s identity as a Feminist Genre Fiction novelist. In the second chapter, through the analysis of root causes behind appearance of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novels, and to find the true meaning of the ambiguous features of her novels, especially her properly using of them. In the third chapter, from the perspective of deconstruction and reconstruction of the characterization of the patriarchal system, the chapter explains the novel characterization implied by both open and sheltered criticism and rebellious.In the end, we will find that the formation of the writer’s intrinsic drive and the final direction of the characterization of the writer is the secret of feminism.