On Female Images In The Novels Of Duanmu Hongliang ( 1933-1943 )

Duanmu Hongliang is an "case" in Chinese contemporary literature. In recent years, study of Duanmu has been developing to a further depth with exploitation of the significance and values of northeast writers. Duanmu is good at writing about females. However, study on the female characters in Duanmu's novel does not receive fair attention. Based on careful and thorough reading of Duanmu's novel especially written in the thirties and forties, the paper aims to briefly analyze female characters in his novels and thus provide a clue to the study of Duammu.The paper is divided into three parts. The first part is analysis on lower-class female characters in Duanmu's novel especially his early novels. "Malelike" is the distinctive feature between those female character and female characters in other cotemporaries' novels. With the help of previous studies, the paper analyzes causes of the formation of the distinctive feature from the perspective of the regional and cultural features of the northeast. Those caused include geological environment, ways of production and life and ethnics. It is just the special regional and cultural features that help to create such strong, attractive and straightforward female characters. The second part is analysis on upper-class females in Duanmu's novel. Born in an aristocratic family, Duanmu is very familiar with the life of maids in a big family. Through their sumptuous life, Duanmu gave insightful description of their true feelings such as loneliness and sadness. The description of those tragic females reflects Duanmu's tragic consciousness originated from his outlook on life and also exposes the lingering aristocratic sense in his mind. The third part is analysis on metropolitan females. Metropolitanworld is one of the important composing parts in his novels. However, it tends to be ignored. In his novels, plasticity and nightly melody in March, Duanmu exposes the tragic living conditions of metropolitan females. The two novels are saturated with his thoughts on cities. Mijun, one female character in his novel-sidelights in cities, is in a constant state of wandering and searching. Duanmu's description of Mijun's marginal life in society indirectly exposes the then Duanmu's hesitation before reality.