Women Writers’ Native Women Writing In Their Nativist Novels In The Recent Two Decades

This dissertation departs from the works of women writers in regional writing and tries to depict the tradition in this genre and the formation of native female characters. Moreover, in terms of gender identity of the writers, their standpoint and attitude in writing, social and literary contexts and their aesthetic values, it analyzes the complicated relationship between two literary systems, namely "nativist literature" and "native women", as well as the literary world constructed by these two systems.In the First Chapter, it reviews the tradition of nativist literature and native women’s writing from the "May Fourth" period to recent decades. Within this genre, on the one hand, women’s writing follows the mainstream discourses in different eras, which manifests women’s strong will to participate in public matters as well as their broad literary visions and various literary styles; on the other hand, their spontaneous gender consciousness establishes a kind of "deviant writing of women" which voices women’s own thoughts separated from the common discourse of the time and shows unique thinking about the circumstances and fate of native women. This chapter lays a historical foundation for further studies on women’s writing concerning native women in the recent two decades.In the Second Chapter, it discusses women’s writing based on the standpoint of modern rational enlightenment since the1990s. The viewpoint of feminism coincides with modern intellectuals’standpoint of rational enlightenment. These two parties take part in criticism and reflection on native women’s existential dilemma and cultural circumstances in a changing society in the1990s, and they also examine the deep-rooted cultural problems in native women per se. Therefore, this enlightenment is a serious scrutiny of biased gender tradition and outdated gender order formed in the patriarchal society for thousands of years, and sensitive awareness of "modernity" which reappears with a new face.Chapter Three investigates women writers’rewriting of native land and native women from a viewpoint of "anti-modern". As an important semantic field and discourses,"something folk" effectively participates in the construction of native world and history and its female figures which are completely different from modem rational discourses. The inclusiveness of "folk" stance enables these writings to diversify from mainstream political discourses of the time, and in the meantime, manifests its conscious distance from the viewpoint of elite intellectuals and its transcendence of moral discourses. Its fundamental purpose lies in the thorough consideration and concern of "humanity".Since the1990s, with the rapid development of urbanization, Chinese society has witnessed a tremendous trend of "going to city". The Fourth Chapter focuses on the literary representation of this trend and analyzes women writers’depiction of "going--to-city" women’s mentality and their sufferings, as well as their normal days. In terms of the city and the country, modern and tradition, the rich and the poor, and plundering and being plundered, this chapter examines a special kind of literary phenomenon during social transformation, as well as writers’sensitive capture and unique representation of time, history and women. Besides, writings concerning daily activities of native "going-to-city" women vividly demonstrate women writers’ distinctive exploration in literary practice.From the perspectives of "routineness" and "region", Chapter Five investigates aesthetic features in women writers’regional writing and their characterization of native women. The writing of "routineness" is not only an effective way to express modern rational enlightenment and to illustrate cozy details of "anti-modern" homeland, but also a representation of the conscious remoteness to ideology and grand narrative, aiming at the reduction of "original" native world and the demonstration of native women’s secularized survival."Region" is a crucial perspective in both nativist literature per se and women’s literature/gender studies, which shares common characteristics with the latter in terms of various aesthetic effects and diversified gender experiences formed by "difference". In front of the evitable process of globalization, different regions not only provide rich aesthetic resources and styles, but also have a positive influence over our recognition of "gender" and the enrichment of women’s literature. In the conclusion, this dissertation summarizes the meaning of the writing of native women since the1990s. As for women writers, the departure of "nativist literature" will correct the one-sided understanding and stereotype concerning women’s writing in the1990s labeled as something "personalized" and "divorced from reality". The significance of "native" for women’s writing lies in its plain, gentle and genuine writing pattern of gender and relationship. Furthermore, within the cultural discourses of increasingly strong consumerism, the double "marginalization" of "native" and "women" enjoys certain function of "otherness" in deconstruction, unexpectedly developing another perspective besides Zeitgeist and mainstream image and expression in literature.