The Self-Images Of Female Writers Of May4^th Generation

This study focuses on female writers in the1917-1927Chinese literary circles, especially Chen Hengzhe, Bin Xin, Lu Yin, Feng Yuanjun etc. and their creation. By analyzing their self-image and ways of imagination, it attempts to expose the predicament and obstruction of feminist literature and expound the morals the modern feminism may learn from their imagination. The study, on the basis of text analysis, thus explains how women’s idealized concept of life and life experiences affected their perspectives and how they were projected onto their creation.The study consists of nine parts, a preface followed by seven chapters and a discussion. The preface deals with the rationale for and significance of this study, and what perspective and approach this study is to take.Chapter One discusses what basis there was for women writers of the May4th generation to create their particular self-image. For them, the history of Chinese women and the state they were in were the departure points for their creation; their own quality, their family backgrounds, their educational experiences and the encouragement by the then social journals constituted the preconditions for their creation.Chapter Two elaborates on the referential system for the creation of their self-image: the fact that men and women "prophets" had designed the idealized image of Chinese women. Those "prophets", in answer to social demand of that time imagined women as mothers of the people, female doctors, female students that are to master Chinese and Western knowledge, heroines for salvation of the country and the people, and females with healthy consciousness.The following five chapters deal with the modes of self-images of female writers and the corresponding projections onto the textsChapter Three analyzes the self-image of the women of the modern world who still observed traditional values, and the existence of otherness of those traditional girls, wives and the lower-class labor women, pointing out that these women, however, found qualities of perseverance, patience, firmness and responsiveness in the lower-class labor women, thus revaluing their relationship with the mass of the people. Chapter Four expounds female students’ image in these women writers’works. They formed an idealized image of modern female students, who were well-educated, independents, and had a sense of social responsibility to accomplish the task of women liberation and building a new era. However, reality was to the contrary. Many girl students who had received the modern education still fell victims of the old ideas and old morals, with some rebelling the tradition by pursuing love, some being stuck in the conflict between emotions and reason. When their ideals collided with the reality, they resorted to the protection of maternal love or the love from their girl friends. During this period time, their gender awareness was gradually awakening.Chapter Five is devoted to the analysis of their family life. After they finished schooling, most of the modern girls students got married, serving the role as dutiful wives and loving mothers. With an independent character as they had, they never gave up the pursuit for spiritual freedom of wives in the setting of traditional gender order.Chapter Six discusses the women writers’orientation concerning their career life. Despite the constant conflict between work and family, they continuously devoted themselves to writing, for writing meant an outlet to express their predicament, struggle, and effort. In their autobiographies, they transmitted an image of the modern women whose personalities, in their pursuit of independence, equality and freedom, were different from the traditional ones. They tried to get involved in the progress of society and history by being committed to writings, seeking the meaning of their existenceChapter Seven is about women writers’imagination of how females were related the then politics and nation or country. We find in Luyin’s work women’s revolutionary image and women’s reconciliation with the times and the then politics, but most of the women writers were still vigilant against hegemony over their country, nation, and ideology and showed a high degree of anxiety they wished to get rid of in their highly personal and virtual description of the world.The discussion part concerns itself with the influence and significance of the self-images produced by the May4th generation on future female literature. We can see in the works by Ding Ling, Xie Bingying, Ge Qin, Yang Mo, Xiao Hong, Liu Zhen, Zhang Ailing, Ru Zhijuan etc. their debt to the female writers of May4th generation like Feng Yuanjun, Lu Yin, Ling Shuhua, Chen Hengzhe and so on, whose choices of identity, self-image and approaches to difficult situation in transitional times shed great lights on the contemporary female writers.