A Comparative Study Of 20th Century Chinese And Spanish Female Bildungsroman

As cultural exchanges between countries around the world become more frequent,literature of different nationalities and languages is gradually moving towards what Goethe wanted to call “world literature”.Under the premise of promoting dialogue and exchange,the main focus of research,whether parallel,influential or interdisciplinary,is to explore the cosmopolitan elements of world literature,that is,the literary forms and general rules of literature that express human emotions and spirit.As an important part of 20th-century Chinese and Spanish women’s literature,the female bildungsroman has gone through a century of existence,from imitation to clear self-identification.Although there is no kinship or causal relationship between the two countries’ women’s literature,the similarities between the two countries in terms of historical trajectories,national psychology,and modernization processes,as well as the almost simultaneous emancipation of women,have led to a common mental model in the search for the construction of women’s self-identity in these two countries.These common spiritual factors are the reason for the commonality between the two countries in terms of the historical evolution,creative characteristics and spiritual connotations of female bildungsroman,which are the universal factors of women’s literature in both countries and form the cornerstone and basis for comparison.Inspired by the theory of “cosmopolitan factor”,this thesis takes 20 th century Chinese and Spanish female bildungsroman as the object of analysis,and adopts the parallel research method of comparative literary theory to compare and analyse the commonalities and characteristics of female bildungsroman of the two countries in terms of historical evolution,the matic transmutation,narrative art and contributions of the times,so as to discover the characteristics and charm of female bildungsroman of the two countries within a higher and broader value judgment system.In this paper,we explore the simultaneous reflections of writers from both countries on the theme of “growth”and their different perspectives based on different cultural contexts,so as to highlight the characteristics and charms of Chinese female bildungsroman within a higher and broader value judgment system.The thesis begins with an analysis of the emergence,development and evolution of female bildungsromans in China and Spain in the twentieth century,and compares the trajectory of this genre in both countries through a comprehensive theoretical perspective that combines historiography and narratology.From its infancy at the beginning of the 20 th century,to its emergence from the 1930 s to the 1970 s,and then to its maturity at the end of the 20 th century,female bildungsromans in China and Spain presented different narrative characteristics and thematic connotations at various stages.As the Chinese and Spanish women’s liberation movements were an important part of the social movements in both countries and were not initiated independently,the journey of the construction of the female subject in both countries was closely linked to the changes in social thinking in both countries.From the contradictory state of mind of the new women in the era when dawn and dusk met,to the ambiguous and subtle state of writing the history of individual women’ s spiritual struggle under the tight grip of political and patriarchal ideologies,to the timely response to women’s growing difficulties and spiritual breakthrough after the special period,women writers from both countries have used delicate and sincere strokes to outline women’s struggle in both countries.The writers of the two countries use delicate and sincere strokes to outline the growth of women in both countries from the weak “other” to the determined “self ”.Based on the transmutation trajectory of female bildungsromans in both countries,this paper analyses the typical texts of female bildungsroman in the three periods from the perspective of thematics.Although the female bildungsroman in both China and the Spain started late,they have been in the process of exploration and development due to the original impetus provided by the development of social change.This continuous accumulation of artistic experience and the depth of the subject’s meaning is the reason why Chinese and Spanish female bildungsromans have been able to continuously expand the writing field and enrich their meaning during the nearly century-long developmental flux.Since the 20 th century,the similar historical processes and gender situations of women in the two countries have led to the themes of female bildungsromans in both countries to undergo a process of evolution from the growth of individuality on the modern express to the difficulties of growing up in a special period to the search for identity in a new period.However,through comparison,we can also see that,due to different cultural positions and perspectives,women writers from the two countries have different ways of understanding and interpreting the same themes in writing and expressing them.The multiple exploitative and oppressive conditions of Chinese women have led Chinese women writers to closely link private discourse with public discourse.While this has expanded the field of expression of the theme of female growth,it has also placed them in a dilemma when dealing with the microcosm of female growth outside the mainstream.Conversely,because Spanish women’s writing has not been “co-opted”by national and class discourses,they have been able to explore and write about women’s hidden and scattered personal experiences with greater depth and imagination.The thesis also compares and analyses the narrative art of female bildungsromans in both countries.Firstly,in contrast to growth novels written by male contemporaries,Chinese and Spanish women writers tend to adopt a self-referential intra-perspective,expressing the loneliness of body and soul in a private,intuitive grounded discourse.Secondly,in order to express the awakening of female consciousness in a twisted way under the discourse of male power,imagery,as a metaphor with deep cultural connotations,has become an effective and covert means of expression for women writers in both countries.Through covert and effective writing techniques such as “body”,“mirror” and “space”,women in both countries perceive their own bodies with a sense of wandering,apprehension and self-divisiveness;gender The women’s sense of wandering,apprehension and self-disintegration when perceiving their own bodies,their gender awakening and self-construction along with the realisation of spatial transformation,and their relentless efforts to cross the gap between their real selves and their subject selves are all delicately portrayed and displayed.By comparing the evolution of the narrative art of Chinese and Spanish female bildungsromans since the 20 th century,we can explore the unique aesthetic value of women’s writing in both countries from the literature itself.Finally,this paper discusses the significance of comparing Chinese and Spanish female bildungsromans in the context of world literature and gender.Firstly,in order to better understand and promote the creation of female bildungsromans in China,it is particularly necessary to take other literatures as a reference in the context of world literature,to find the general rules of literature that express the construction of female subjectivity on the one hand,and to examine the strong national characteristics that women’s writing gives to this literary genre in both countries on the other.As the women’s liberation movements in both countries overlap with the waves of social change and national rejuvenation,the writing on female growth is characterised by intergenerational writing due to the great changes in historical circumstances and social contexts,and the transitional periods in the physical and psychological development of the female growth protagonists in the works are characterised by complexity,intensity and prolongation.The diverse topography of the two countries,with the benefits of the sea or rivers and the beauty of the snow-capped peaks,also creates a variety of spatial backgrounds for the growth of women,making the writing of women distinctive regional characteristics.In addition,a review of the evolution of women’s growth novels in the two countries also means a comparison of the different characteristics and directions of the development of women’s liberation movements in the two countries from a gender perspective,so as to analyse the real gender encounters faced by women’s growth in the two countries and provide a reference for women in China to break through the barriers and reconstruct their gender selves.