The Voice Of Their Own

Dubliners, with its more female characters than any other works of James Joyce, is regarded as a truthful and vivid reflection of Irish women's condition at the turn of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. In Dublin, the most stringent requirements are placed on women, who are labeled as "the oppressed of the oppressed" and overshadowed and marginalized as in all other patriarchal cultures. But it is remarkable that the female image in Dubliners is profoundly loaded as the symbol of the Irish people who was exploited and oppressed by the English colonists for centuries. Joyce's Dubliners is deeply interwoven with the broader background of the Irish history and culture. The character of Irish people being paralyzed and compliant in front of the colonial tyranny while clinging to its customs and refusing any reform is depicted by the various characters of the women in Dubliners. In the patriarchal Ireland, Irish women have the aspect of challenging the masculine authority as well as the aspect of being docile to accept the role imposed by others. Some of them attempt to strangle new ideas while others, deeply rooted in the national culture, endeavor to resist oppressing force from the giant power home and abroad.To begin with, the introductory part not only illustrates the significance of Dubliners as the threshold of James Joyce's novels, but also offers a general survey of James Joyce research by foreign scholars from the perspective of feminism, as well as the analysis of the statistics of Dubliners research in China in this decade. Meanwhile, a brief introduction to Michel Foucault's theory of discourse and power is also presented in this section.The main body of this thesis consists of three parts: namely, constructing masculine discourse power, women's resisting against male dominance and deconstructing of masculine power by women's uttering the voice of their own.The second part attempts to demonstrate how the masculine discourse power is constructed from the aspects of women's absence, women's silence and the women's internalization of patriarchal influence reflected by mother-daughter relationships. "After the Race" and "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" are concerning international and national politics, in which the absence of women signifies the fact that man occupies dominance in Irish social life. What is worst is the slavey girl in "Two Gallants", who is described as existing for men like some eternal silent presence. Mothers in Dubliners stand for Irish meager traditional culture, as well as the victim of patriarchal society. On the one hand, mothers are disciplined by patriarchy to play the expected roles. On the other hand, once disciplined, mothers try to discipline others according to the moral and patriarchal principles, especially their daughters who are almost vulnerable to mothers' influence. In this sense, mothers in Dublin participate in the constructing of masculine discourse power.Part Three illustrates how women in different phases of life attempt to resist the masculine discourse power. Maria in "Clay" is still in pursuit of her happiness, although she is old and poor. The mistake in her song is an unaware outlet of her longing for love and happiness. Women in marriage are disillusioned so as to turn to church for solace or devote themselves to their children. All these women resist the masculine discourse power by uttering helpless voice with no audience to understand them.Part Four gives an analysis of women's uttering the voice of their own in order to deconstruct male dominance. Mrs. Sinico is killed by the whole patriarchy including her lover, her husband and the court, in addition, her daughter, who acts as an accomplice. She is defeated by patriarchy, but her voice is obsessing Duffy for a long time, which triggers the latter to know the reality that he is the outcast of life's feast. Mrs. Sinico's death and her arduous struggle show us the strength of Irish patriarchy and the alienation between woman and woman who should have been united and fought against patriarchy side by side. However, "The Dead" represents a community of women whose relationships are mutually supporting and echoing one another in their striving against male dominance. Their uttering the voice of their own reveals the subversive power from feminine discourse.The fifth part is the conclusion. Among the fifteen Dubliners short stories, although only four of which have central female characters, the women images or influences of women are lingering and threading through the collection, constituting a continuum, through which the process of women's awakening is demonstrated, aiming at the subversion of the paralyzed patriarchal society in Dublin. According to Michel Foucault, power is not only repressive, but also productive. Likewise, Irish patriarchal society exerts a variety of strategies in hope of disciplining women by means of suppressing them from uttering the voice of their own. Nevertheless, women in Dubliners in no way play merely a subsidiary role to male development. Separate as each short story in its own right, the women's hidden stories echo from one to another, women's struggle against male authority as a looming clue threading through the text. Women's subversive voice initiates men's re-consideration of themselves and their relationship with women. Any literary works is the reflection of author's political unconsciousness and Joyce's Dubliners is no exception. In order to represent Joyce's female characters, feminist criticism is employed in this thesis. What is more, Foucault's theory about discourse and power is also adopted as the framework which may enhance the understanding of Joyce's female images in the historical and cultural background as well as the closely-knitted relationship between women images and the character of Irish people. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the absence of women, the loss of women's voice and the uttering of the voice of their own, which might offer a perspective for better understanding of Dubliners.