Taiwan Female Literature Research Between The 1950's And The 1960's

Taiwan female literature between the 1950's and the 1960's, marked by the labels of "the fifties and the sixties", "Taiwan" and "female", is always marginalized in narration and research of Chinese literature history. Research on the peculiar ideological literature is almost a blank page in previous mainland literature history works. In the 1980's, with the proposal of the slogan of "Rewriting Literature History", it is again marginalized by the new literature history in the form of separate chapter. The fifties and the sixties are special periods when literature on both sides of Taiwan strait was highly pinned by ideology and packed with strong political symbols. Literature of this period is strongly disparaged by literature historians from both sides, let alone the female literature.Based on the above mentioned historical and realistic reasons, taking Taiwan women writers between the 1950's and the 1960's and their works as research subject, this thesis tries to discover and reevaluate female literature of this period through comprehensive interpretation and analysis and to reconstruct Taiwan female literature history.This thesis first analyses the reason for the rising of Taiwan female literature in the fifties and the sixties from all the components of literature production and then further elaborates how the first generation of postwar women writers utter their own voice in the "Anti-Communist" literature trend. Charateristics of the female literature of that period are analysed from the following aspects: 1. female and homeland: nostalgic writing of mainland homeland vs. regional writing of "Taiwan Home"; 2. molding and presentation of female gender consciousness under conservative social culture; 3. heritage of May Fourth literature tradition; 4. women writers' sexual writing and overseas students' literature in the modernism trend in the sixties.This thesis consists of 5 chpaters besides introduction and conclusion.Chapter One: Women's Voice in the Male Age---Literary System of the Fifties and Women Writers. This chapter mainly hackles the general situation of Taiwan literary circle in the fifties; reveals how the first generation of women writers go through all the hardships, settle in Taiwan and enter the literary circle; analyzes the reason why they enter the literary circle and form peculiar literary group in the fifties' male narration.Chapter Two: Where is the Homeland-Definition and Construction of Postwar Women Writers' Identity. Coming from mainland to Taiwan island with Kuomintang, the first generation of Taiwan's women writers caters to the traditional culture of "Great China" and expresses their misses for the remote homeland and their affection to "Taiwan Home". From "staying in Taiwan" to "settling in Taiwan", their literary creation makes "wandering" an important theme of Taiwan literature in the fifties and the sixties. From "recalling homeland" to "Taiwan Home", their writings reconstruct a new identity recognition. The second generation women writers of the sixties, promoted by the trends of modernism and studying abroad, expresses their pains of "rootless" and "wandering". Based on Qi Jun's homesick prose and Nie Hualing's novel, the first two sections of this chapter aim to present women writers' identity confusion. The third section expounds the "Taiwan New Homeland" by examining women writers' local writing of people and events in Taiwan.Chapter Three: Gender vs. Nation--Gender Narration of Postwar Women Writers. In the grand state narration, women writers and their works are denounced as "Girls' Literature" or "Housewife Literature" for their elegant and delicate aesthetic characteristic and their trivialization and personalization of the theme. However, tender as these women writers may seem, a strong sense of female subjectivity is revealed in their works. Based on interpretation of works of Taiwan's first generation women writers, such as Lin Haiyin and Xu Zhongpei, the first three sections in this chapter reveal the wakening of female subjectivity of tradtional women and the courageous self-breakthrough of modern women through their love and marriage stories. In the sixties, the second generation women writers of Taiwan accepts the modernism thought trend. Their writings of themes as sex and incest challenges the traditional ethics and stresses modern and female consciousness. In this chapter, Ouyang Zi's novel and Guo Lianghui's "Heart Lock" are examined to reveal the process of women breaking the fetters of patriachal society, subverting tradtional ethical system, publicizing female gender conscious and reconstructing their own subjectivity.Chapter Four is mainly devoted to elaborate Taiwan women writers' inheritance to the spirit of May Fourth literature. In this chapter, the follwing aspects are examined to reveal Taiwan women writers' inheritance of May Fourth spirit, including their expression of "worrying about the fate of the nation" and of "liberalism", their artistic feature and the aesthetic quality. Based on Nie Hualing and Free China she edits, the second section analyses how the liberal tradition is presented and expounded in women writers' texts under the oppression of official literature. Section three illustrates the inheritance of delicate aesthetic tradition in women writers' works in postwar period by analyzing Qijun and Zhang Xiuya's prose writings.Chapter Five: From Literary Theory Transplantation to Physical Displacement. In the sixties, modernist literature and overseas students' literature, featured by their distinctive charateristics of times and aesthetic quality, constitute a glorious page in Taiwan's postwar literature and leave in Chinese literarture history many classical works, to which women writers make great contributions. The first section analyses the reason why modernist thought trend arises again in the fifties and the sixties by examining its relationships with liberalism and American Aid culture. Section two takes "Modern Literature" and a writer Ouyang Zi as example, analyses relationship between female literature of this period and the modernist literature featured by psychoanalysis. Section three is to analyse the reason and the background of the emergence of overseas students' literature as well as its relationship with female literature. Most of writers of sixties overseas students' literature have the experience of wandering from mainland to Taiwan, from Taiwan to America. Whether it is passive exile or active banishment, the destiny of wandering again and the clash between eastern and western cultures provide these women writers with various themes: the pain of homesick, the sadness of living elsewhere, the identity anxiety of "staying" or "leaving". Based on the analysis of the works of Yu Lihua and Ji Zhen, this section explores the characteristics of overseas students' literature in the sixties and interprete the travellers' depress, pain and sense of loss on their road of wandering and searching for love.In one word, by interpreting and analysing female writers' works in the fifties and sixties, this thesis aims to grasp the style and literary feature of women writers' creation and reevaluate women writers' works which have long been neglected or misunderstood. In the process of writing this thesis, the author sticks on objective and precise academic attitude, accumulates large amount of research material and history data. This thesis fills in a gap in the mainland female literature research and prepares ground for the construction of Taiwan literary history and Chinese female literature.