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Understanding Cao Yu And His Works In Feminism

Posted on:2005-07-31Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:C ZhaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360125965250Subject:Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature
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There are abound results on Cao Yu Study in modern and comtemporary literature research.. During the second half of the 20th century, Chinese and foreign scholars on Cao Yu Study and persons from other fields have pubished numerous articles and works. Especially since the end of 1970's, Cao Yu Study has been on a new stage, it has covered aspects like art, thought, historical resource, stage practice and so on. More issues are touched, wider fields are investigated, and deeper layers are explored than on any other previous periods. But in overview of various research results, we can not find complete and systemetic analysis about Cao Yu's plays in any of them using feminist principles. That is what I am going to do in this paper.According to the principles of western feminist literature critics, the gynocritic mainly crictisize traditional value and esthetic interest from the ideas of male superiority in literature, by scrutinizing traditional dominating culture favoring males for thousands of years in feminist standpoint and manner. In this paper I try to set up a research category, taking "thunder storm", "sunrises", "wild field", "Peking People" as samples, cricticising traditional male superiority in culture and literature in feminist standpoint. After that, I am going to investigate, reorganize, review and re-evaluate figures, themes, which have been formed by social development and change for a long time. I hope it will provide some meaningful clues for study of modern literature history.In literure in all times and in all countries, purity, chastity, kindness, beauty and softness are characteristics of ideal and perfect female figures. Contrary to these,Eccentric, unreasonable, vague, controlling, selfish and hysteria are characteristics of wild women. On one hand, these traditional descriptions for characteristics of female roles, represent that the author with male priority consciousness is exercising real world sexual politics in literature, a cultural offspring of patriarchy, due to his gender awareness. On the other hand, these descriptions have been inherited from generation to generation in human history as a cultural phenomenon, they have been gradually absorbed in conventional culture psychology, and they have affected people's view of life for generations. Angel Sifeng Lu and mad Fan Yi are examples of the above two kinds of typical women in Cao Yu's plays. By describing an angel, the author expresses his appreciation of a woman's traditional unselfish and pretty nature, which is men's esthetic ideal, and it exists to sacrifice for men. By describing a mad woman, he expresses loathing and fear about certain female characteristics, and female resistance to male pressure on woman's creativity. Gynocritics have found radical feminist ideas in his positive attitude to the image of Fan Yi. Besides, The prostitute Bailu Chen in his another play has a vanguard image. She becomes a prostitute without any pressure from outside world, and she has a feeling of freedom on being that. Therefore this overturned the traditional way of educing story development, in which the female is of losing herself.Without doubt, Cao Yu's feminist ideas are limited to some extent due to his own environment, time and social development. On this, we are going to investigate furthermore.Cao Yu, as a spokesman for human hardship, infuses all his special life experiences of passions in his four famous works, i.e. "Thunder Storm", "Sunrise", "Wild Field" and "Pekinese". The works reflect the author's concern about female's life value, and effort to discover the source of tragedies for women. He believes the tragedies roots in Chinese history and social soil, and he criticizes traditional family culture and abnormal urbane civilization sternly, he enlightens people's lives from the most basic layer of life value, so his works include deep thinking of modern culture. Firstly Cao Yu disclosed that patriarchy hurts females by criticizing the culture of family superiority. Secondly he is stron...
Keywords/Search Tags:Feminism, patriarchy, progress, limit
PDF Full Text Request
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