The Evolution Of Female Consciousness In Ling Li’s Historical Novels

As one of the few accomplished female historical novel writers in the contemporary literary circle, Ling Li has drawn great attention for her ingenious writing skills and well-known works. Since the publishing of her first work Sparks of Grass, her writing career has lasted for over forty years, during which the theme, historical implication and cultural connotation in her novels have witnessed dramatic changes with obvious increasing concern for women and reflection on handling of sexual relations. The historical novels written by Ling Li, which are also the fruits from the literary creation of a female writer, are full of feminine elements no matter in style or in the way of expression. And the exploration of female consciousness has undergone a progressive evolution as time goes by.The paper will focus on the study of six historical novels of Ling Li to date. By organizing and analyzing from multiple levels the narrative, metaphor and characters in the novels, it tries to find out the evolution of female consciousness with the purpose of better exploring the value of the novels by Ling Li.The evolution of female consciousness in the novels by Ling Li has undergone four stages:Firstly, during the composition of Sparks of Grass, women were described to be obedient to the collectivity and existed only as a subject or tool for the revolution of the era under the influence of the main stream of "Seventeen Years" literature thoughts and "Cultural Revolution". This stage stands for the unconscious consent to the male-dominated discourse center.Secondly, during the composition of the works of Hundred Years Glories Series which are represented by the trilogy Younger Emperor, Evening Drum and Morning Bell—Younger Emperor Kang Xi and The Downfall of the State, the author recorded the constant pioneering historical spirit of the feudal dynasty during the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. In this stage the works have to a great extent restored the female characters and their surviving conditions to the traditional history, that is, they began to be treated as an independent existence instead of being alienated any more. The gender consciousness of female characters started to grow but the main body still converged to phallocentrism.Thirdly, during the composition of A Dream of the River Guan, Ling Li began to pay much attention to the survival of female characters that were disadvantaged and enslaved against the volatile social background. The bitter experience of the five sisters of the Liu Family, in particular Liu Yaojin, has unfolded the misery that the traditional Chinese women have suffered for thousands of years which have never been looked at seriously. Liu Yaojin, who was treated in the novel as the main body, finally became a real woman after long endurance of hardship and gender discrimination. Obviously, Ling Li has fulfilled the confirmation of female consciousness in this stage of literary creation.Fourthly, as an extension to the last stage, Beauty in North pictured much more impressive and complete female consciousness which was more confused at the same time. The author illustrated the bumpy lives, which were full of vicissitudes, of two beauties that lived at the political whirlpool of the Mongolian nation. Based on the life, desire and emotion of women, Ling Li managed to express the various feelings and emotions which were peculiar to women. Meanwhile, she took a much more rational and profound look at the sexual relations. Consequently, the female consciousness was facing new and further difficulties.Throughout the whole process of Ling Li’s literary creation, the female consciousness in her works has gone through long but vivid evolution, from the unconsciousness consent to male-dominated center to the early stage of female consciousness, and then the confirmation of female subject consciousness, and finally sticks in the revolving female spiritual predicament.