War And Peace Between The Two Women

The relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is a basic motif in Chineseliterature. Owning to its special property—lacking of stability based on blood relations andintimacy from the marriage，it becomes the most subtle and complicated relationship in thefamily, and attractes much more attention of numerous literature. Entering the twentieth century,the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law which was far away frommainstream of the era civilization, turns to the focus of the new Chinese literature gradually. Itsprofound social cultural connotation and psychological connotation are revealed intensively. Inthis thesis, we take the typical works of different periods in the twentieth century as the chiefsource, trying to clarify the development about this relationship in terms of female liberation andfamily ethics, and discuss the relation between its changes and the era with the psychology of theauthors. This thesis consists of four chapters as follows:Chapter one, the narration of rlationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in thecontext of May Fourth enlightenment. Modern authers analyse the relationship in the underclassand feudalism family on humanitarian grounds. Mother-in-law which represente feudal moralityare criticised,daughter-in-law which have miserable lives are sympathized. The narration ofrelationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law becomes an approach to realizing theenlightion of anti-feudalism and the reform of society.Chapter two, the diversification of the narration of relationship between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law under the background of war. The relationship is connected with our nation.Onone side, it begins to serve the Anti-Japanese War. On the other side, the double war pressuresharpen the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Besides, based on the agerequirement of serve the worker-peasant-soldier, the literatures in liberated area begin to expressthe themes about victory of revolution,the changes of society, female emancipation，and so on.The authers also try to find the deeper cultural and psychology source.Chapter three, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in 17-yearliterature. Among the Pan-politicalized cultural circumstances, 17-year literature construct thenew family ethics system that takes revolution morality as nucleus, the relationship amongfamily members is highly Pan-politicalized, the contradiction between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is narrated into Political contradiction. During this period, with female social role and subordinate status in family changing, daughter-in-law have equal standing with mother-in-law. All these factors lead to a harmony relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.Chapter four, the narration of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relation in the context of transiens culture. Because of the improvement of female economic status and consciousness, the relation tends to be mitigate. The complication of culture, the specificality of society, the pursuit of economic interest, the diversification of moral culture are all major factors to lead to conflict of relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in modern families. Some female writes scan this relationship in the long history culture, clarify the contradiction between the embarrassed lives of woman and traditional feudal culture, and trying to construct new kind of relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the view of female.