Changes In The Image Of 'mother' In Female Poets Of The 20th Century

Apart from its literal meaning, 'mother' has, in keeping with China's tradition to instill certain moral values in its people, an undoubtedly symbolic value. The dissertation you're about to read selects the poets Bing Xin, Shu Ting and Zhai Yongming who, in different periods of the 20th century, use the metaphor 'mother', revealing a mutation in understanding according to the social, historical and cultural circumstances of the time they write.In the beginning of last century Bing Xin finds herself somewhere between tradition and future, between old and new, doubting on the one hand the value of the old ' Mother'-idea, on the other hand she continues to use the image, amalgates it with the Christian 'Holy Mother'- concept, thus creating a myth of a 'Mother' who saves the world. Shu Ting, experiencing another cultural setting, treats the 'Mother'-concept as partly belonging to the individual who cares and partly as belonging to a collective system. These two parts are clearly in conflict with each other. Towards the end of the century when China experiences socially yet another turn in history, we see Zhai Yongming in a post-modernistic style trying to capture the idea of 'Mother' as a female individual with a strong self determination, leading mankind into the future.In analyzing the image of 'mother' in the three given periods we see that the writers have great difficulty to undo the concept from a collective, moralistic charge, and concieve 'mother'as an individual person, fulfilling her own destiny and holding up a mirror to others.