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A Comparative Study Of Female Consciousness In "Chinese - Style Divorce" In Wang Haili 's "Like The Rhinoceros Horn"

Posted on:2017-04-15Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y HongFull Text:PDF
GTID:2175330485467581Subject:Chinese Ethnic Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Deepening and developing comparative study of contemporary’ literature in China and South Korea has very high research value in the field of South Korean and Chinese comparative literature studies, and the comparative study of South Korean and Chinese contemporary female literature is one of the special and important contents. Whether female writers consciously or unconsciously accept female perspective and use female perspective in creation, women’s unique literary road, creation mind and life experiences together form a very important way to expose the world’s reality. Furthermore, with female perspective as a starting point, it can express a lot of unique insights about the history, society and culture that cannot be ignored. Since the 1980s, the prosperity of Chinese and South Korean women literature has become a remarkable scene in the literary circle; female literature research in the two countries also flourished and has now formed a trend. During this period, China and South Korean have increasingly frequent and close exchanges in all fields including economic field and cultural field, so comparative study of female literature in the two countries has also received rapid development and has become a hot research direction in the academia.Throughout the nearly three decades of China and South Korea, the two countries have both experienced rapid economic development and fast-paced social progress; however, when people of the two countries enjoy a wealth of material wealth and spiritual needs, they also suffer from pressure in all aspects:problems in marriage, family and work are more and more complex, it is easy for people to fall into contradictions and predicament difficult to avoid. South Korean writer Gong Jiyoung and Chinese writer Wang Hailing capture conflicts and crises women face in their daily lives with keen observation, project them onto the literary creation and use delicate but cool style of writing to make a true representation of the situation of women, the fate of women and feelings of women, which has great significance in humane care.In the paper, based on female literary theory, in the parallel comparative research method, the author first attempts to make a comparative study on two works of "Move ahead alone like a rhino horn" written by Korean writer Gong Jiyoung and "Chinese-style divorce" written by the Chinese writer Wang Hailing. Although the two works were in different years, but they both caused discussion in literary field; especially in the understanding and thinking of women’s issues, the two writers’views are continuously discussed and concerned today with a broad impact on society. Although the two writers live in different countries, these two works of "Move ahead alone like a rhino horn" and "Chinese-style divorce" were published in different periods, two works have many similarities in many aspects of the character setting, connotation in the era and literary thought; the two works also have differences in many aspects due to different social systems, national culture, ideology of writers and writing style. Therefore, the paper has feasible and practical significance for comparative research on these two works. Furthermore, as the comparative study on these two women writers and their works have not yet appeared in the literary world, comparative study of these two South Korean and Chinese female literature works has a great significance.The paper is divided into four parts. The first part is an introduction, which puts forward purpose and significance of the research, perspective of topics, feminist literature and related concepts. It combs the research status of two writers and two works in the academic field of China and South Korea and introduces the research object and research methods. The second part is the main part of the paper; with detailed comparative analysis on the female characters of Gong Jiyoung’s "move forward alone like a rhino horn" and Wang Hailing’s "Chinese style divorce", it analyzes the consciousness of women with different nationalities, different ages and different personalities living in different environments for the place in the family, the social position, the role and the embodied value, to achieve analysis and judgment of the female consciousness and female fate. With the development of the times and the transformation of the social environment, female consciousness is in constant change and enriched:therefore, the subject consciousness of Chinese and South Korean women in two works also highlights the characteristics of the times; in the artistic handwriting, the two writers interpret the development path of female subject consciousness in a new era. It describes the difficult maturation process of women in marriage and family life from obedience and dependence to confusion and struggle, to vulnerability and negativeness, to gradual enlightenment and reflection and to rising up and crying,"and makes a detailed analysis and comparison from three parts including maternal characteristics and changes, disorders in female consciousness and awakening of female self-consciousness and presentation and maturity of independent consciousness.Gong Jiyoung and Wang Hailing have great similarities in terms of the portrayal of women; the two works have shaped the traditional image of a mother and a new image of woman who is dedicated herself in the family but eventually experiences a failed marriage and then achieve self-reliance.Deeply influenced by Confucianism, China and South Korea have many similarities in history and cultural process. Confucian ethics has between affecting family relationships and the relationship between men and women in two countries. After the 20th century, with the development of globalization, Chinese and South Korean people’s material life and spiritual life have changed a lot and tend to be diversified. Women are also inevitably affected by the trend of the times and they pursue material wealth and spiritual wealth in various fields in their own ways; specifically in aspects of consciousness of entitlement, independent consciousness and sex consciousness, the consciousness is a lot stronger than that at any time.After the founding of New China, as China protects women’s status and power in the political and legal form, women have an unprecedented wealth of spiritual state never seen before. However, after all, as China experienced a few thousand years of feudal autocratic system, people still have a deep sense of feudalism deep thinking. In real life, women have no fully equal status in the marriage, family, work and society and women also consciously or unconsciously neglect or dilute their subject consciousness as women and get into trouble. Since the inception of South Korea, the government and society has always attached importance of Confucianism and Confucian concept has become an important core of Korean society and culture. In this case, traditional marriage, values and views on women still prevail; patriarchal ideology is intensified and is deeply embedded in people’s ideas. Since the 1970s. South Korean women have conducted ongoing women’s liberation movement, so a lot of systems and legal provisions reflecting the unequal men and women position have been changed and the status of women has been greatly improved. However. Confucian culture is still dominant in South Korea, so the inequality between men and women is more serious than that in China.Many women in these two works make obtaining economic autonomy as a foundation to recover consciousness and they use work as a support to retain the woman’s dignity and self-confidence and find themselves in the community. However, restrictions and barriers encountered by women in the pursuit of economic independence are different. Female characters described in "Move ahead alone like a rhino horn" in the workplace are regarded to be inherently weak as men’s accessories and are often subjected to unequal treatment between men and women. The female characters actively returning home or asked to return to the family are economically dependent on men:it is difficult to solve their own basic needs by themselves. Therefore, women can only silently tolerate the authority of men or resist male authority at the expense of the cost of a complete family, which means that it is difficult for women to establish economic self-awareness and independence in South Korea; while female characters in "Chinese-style divorce" are less constrained by men and society. Their economic situation and the working environment is relatively better than many Korean women, so women are also easier to get the economic independence.From two works of "Move ahead alone like a rhino horn" and "Chinese-style divorce", it can also be seen that if women want to change their destiny and master the life, they not only should have economic independence, but also should be truly independent including mentally without relying on men and stand side by side with men with the image of self-improvement. Two writers advocate women in marriage must not be blind to lose themselves due to love and point out the independent personality is the timeless charm of love to help women more clearly see their own environment, specify how women should keep the true self and encourage women to bravely and strongly go towards the wonderful life.In addition to calling for spiritual and material independence by the two writers, sexual consciousness of women is an important topic. After individual women have physical and mental experience of the development, changes and accumulation of relations between the sexes, they can get mentality in the depth of human nature different from the male. Since China’s reform and opening up. people’s thinking has received an unprecedented liberation; especially, the thought of sexual liberation inevitably affects China’s women. In the novel "Chinese-style Divorce" written by Wang Hailing, it can be seen when a woman faces her husband’s betrayal, she chooses to forgive or chooses divorce; the author makes a calm and objective analysis of the reasons for such a situation, revealing differences between both sexes and hoping both men and women reflect together. but it does not mean that sexual freedom over the moral line is affirmed; it makes people have a more profound and clear understanding of human nature. However, in Gong Jiyoung’s "move ahead alone like a rhino horn", women will adopt the same way of derailment to avenge her husband’s betrayal. The bold act cannot be seen in "Chinese-style Divorce", as it is actually a subversion of patriarchy and the abnormal consequences of male-dominated society. Different sexual attitudes and social atmosphere can reflect different positions and awareness of men and women in terms of sex:Wang Hailing focuses on the use of details in the everyday life to reveal differences between men and women, while Gong Jiyoung directly links the male-female relationship through sex to explore gender differences.The third part compares the similarities and differences of the two works in the character setting, female consciousness, creative style and many other aspects, makes analysis on national culture, social environment, the background of times of the two countries, focuses on mining various factors resulting in similarities and differences of female consciousness in two counties and reveal the ideological content two writers want to express, which is the focus of the paper. It can be seen by comparing the two works that the description range of the two works is relatively concentrated:they both describe the woman’s life and consciousness; the common point is related with similar historical and cultural processes. Two works both reveal that with the development of social material civilization and spiritual civilization, female subject consciousness has more and more become the spirit in the times for self-sustaining, self-esteem, self-confidence and self-reliance of women and the character that must have. Their works inspire women to explore the road to liberation and make women have great enthusiasm to explore the fate in the life.Different points shown in the two works also are related with different social background of both countries, women’s life, environmental differences and writers’ mentality, which is thought-provoking. Gong Jiyoung’s "move ahead alone like a rhino horn" more focuses on the description of the female experience; the author calls for that women should find themselves in the smallest unit of society-the family, break the patriarchal misconception to make women reshape personality and reach spiritual awakening. It has strong criticism in creative language and more emotional narrative approach. Wang Hailing’s "Chinese-style divorce" has a broader field of vision; the author advocates gender equality in the whole society to lead the family to achieve gender equality, encourage women to recover the foundation of subject consciousness and create an independent personality. Creative attitude is bold and straight and the narrative method is more rational. Thus, deep-level differences of the two works are reflected in the characters and the author’s spiritual dimension-criticism and humanity, which is particularly noticeable. The difference makes the works of two people very unique, but the real record and profound meaning inherent in the two writers’literary works is equally thought-provoking.The fourth part is the conclusion and makes a summarizing overview.
Keywords/Search Tags:"Forward Alone Like a Rhino Horn", "Chinese Style Divorce", Female consciousness, Comparison of Chinese and Korean Literatur
PDF Full Text Request
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