On The Change Of Gender Relations In European And American Drama In The Late 19th Century And The Early 20th Century

Gender relations study could be dated back to late 19 th and early 20 th century and reached the climax in 30 s of 20 th century. In the 1970 s, this discipline broadens its research vision with new research methods, and it is no longer a novel topic today. However, Domestic researchers tend to overlook that at the beginning of the gender relations study, this complex topic had already been captured by playwrights,and been portrayed into a thought provoking relations in their plays during the change of times and social transformations in that period.This dissertation attempts to interpret the gender relations in 14 European and American plays in the late 19 th century early 20 th century in the perspective of cultural studies. The versatile sexual images, crisis of relations and the influence of the creation subject to the relationships that presented in the plays will be the focus of this paper. 14 plays are A Doll’s House, Ghosts, Romsersholm, Wide Ducks, written by Ibsen, Miss Julie, Father, written by August Strindberg, Widowers’ Houses, Candida, Pygmalion, written by George Bernard Shaw, Chekhov’s Seagull, Eugene O’Neill ‘s Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, Before the Breakfast, Alarm. From the Angle of cultural studies,the anlysis of the 14 plays indicates the change of gender relations in social and cultural transformation in that period. This paper reveals the cause of change, argues that the playwrights had keenly observed the essence of this relation, even though the term gender relations sill have not been invented a century ago, and their works set up foreshadowing for gender relations of many topics in contemporary dramas.This dissertation consists of five parts. The first part presents the European and American family structure transformation and the change of gender relations based on families in later 19 th and early 20 th century. Family structure changed from the "family" into "core family", from "patriarchy" to a "new type of relationship",which are the direct reasons and preconditions for the changes of gender images and gender relations. The 2nd and 3rd part respectively present the changing female and male images in these plays, indicating the inevitable change that althrough the female gain liberation and arrogation,they still can not change their destiny because of traditional routes and the deprivation of rights and power by the male. The 4th part starts from the typical gender relations, integrates the change of gender status,and explains the hidden crisis in gender relations. The 5th part presents the reasons for the gender relations change, crisis in European and American dramas from the perspectives of social cultures and creation subjects, argues that social transformation including economics, politics and culture, the trauma memories of the creation subjects, gender concept, are the main reasons of the gender relation changes in these dramas.