Maintenance And Subversion Of Feminism In The Thorn Birds

The Thorn Birds, the masterpiece of contemporary Australian writer Colleen McCullough, is a magnificent saga novel, depicting the emotion courses and life experiences of the three female generations of the Clearys from1915to1969. The distinct experiences and fates of the four female characters in the novel are the true reflections of Australian women’s growth at different historical stages. Targeted at the four female characters as the research objects, in the approach of feminist criticism, the thesis interprets the maintenance and subversion of feminism from the perspectives of subjectivity and discourse. This thesis argues that on the one hand, the female subjectivity revealed by the formidable will to survive and persistent love pursuit, and women’s resistance to male discourse demonstrate the maintenance of feminism, and that on the other hand, women’s status of the "Other" and objectification brought by frustration in family life (tragic love and failed marriage) and social life (intimate social relations among their male counterparts), and women’s complicity with dominant discourse finally lead to the subversion of feminism. It consists of fives chapters:introduction, theoretical accounts, maintenance of feminism, subversion of feminism and conclusion.The introduction gives a brief account of the literary achievements of the writer Colleen McCullough, makes a review of the current researches and criticisms on The Thorn Birds in China as well as in foreign countries, and states the central argument and research methodology. Chapter Two focuses on the feminist theoretical concerns in the thesis, clarifying and interpreting the concepts of challenge against patriarchy, female subjectivity and the female discourse associated with feminist theories and feminist literary criticism. Chapter Three elaborates on the feminism reflected in the text. The formidable will to survive in the fight against unfavorable social and environmental conditions and the courageous, consistent pursuit of love are revelations of women’s subjectivity. In terms of discourse, the four female characters living in different era roughly and strenuously resist to the dominant discourse of patriarchal society. Chapter Four demonstrates the subversion of feminism; the apparent awakening and seemingly mature revolt cannot conceal the female destiny of objectification and women’s limited resistance to male discourse reverses into ultimate complicity with the male-dominated discourse. Women’s tragic love and marriage are the projections of female status of the objectification and the "Other" in the family; in society, women’s status and value are virtually debased by male close relationships. With respect to the discourse power, the four women’s resistance to dominant discourse falls into the trap of patriarchal discourse; they fail to dominate the discourse power and construct a successful and ideal female discourse. Based on the analysis of the above chapters, the thesis comes to conclusions that the paradoxes of inheritance and deviation, of maintenance and subversion on feminism are conveyed in The Thorn Birds, and that the limitation of McCullough’s views reveals that she cannot completely go out of the influence of the patriarchal cultures. Through the study of feminism in The Thorn Birds, it is obvious for us that the dominant status of male discourse can be shattered only if women obtain the status of independence and autonomy, achieve their own values and assert their own voices in society.