Different Approaches Of Feminist Criticism And Feminist Narratology

Emma, published in December1815, has been identified as Jane Austen’smost mature novel by literary circles and regarded as her peak work in creativeability and writing skills by Jean Hart. Austen put all her effort and enthusiasmand made Emma become a perfect art. But at the beginning the publication ofEmma was snubbed by the early readers and the shaping of a new woman imageEmma who is different from women in the patriarchal literary is frequentlyquestioned. Jane Austen seemed to anticipate the result and said:" I am going totake a heroine (Emma) whom no one but myself will much like "（Austen,1989:187） For patriarchy culture deeply implanted in women’s thinking for a longtime, women have been put in the position of "other" compared to men, so thesubversion of the male discourse and the construction of women’s discourserights are a crucial step. For a long time, the studies of the critics on Austen’sworks have always been limited to feminist criticism or confined to theinterdisciplinary feminist narratology which is the combination of the feministcriticism and structuralistic narratology emerging after the nineteen eighties. It isnoteworthy that feminist criticism and feminist narratology have a certainrelationship but also have obvious differences between them. So this thesis isexpected to achieve the following three points: firstly, it reacts against patriarchalsociety and constructs female consciousness through the analysis of Emma withfeminist criticism. Secondly, it reflects Austen’s female consciousness, subvertsthe male discourse, and builds self space through the analysis of Emma withfeminist narratology. Thirdly, it sums up the similarities and differences betweenfeminist criticism and feminist narratology after the analysis of Emma with thetwo feminist literary criticisms and helps readers sort out theories andinterpretation methods of feminist criticism and feminist narratology for openingup new ways and new horizons in later analytical practice.Chapter one is an overall generalization of Austen’s life, literary achievements,the research situation of the critics on Emma as well as the significance of thethesis and research aspects. Chapter two expounds the basic theories, origin,development and analysis of feminist criticism and feminist narratology andsummarizes the similarities and differences between the two. Chapter three revealsthe author how to subvert the traditional male narrative and construct women’s discourse rights from aspects of feminine theme, Emma’s feminine consciousnessand marriage view. Chapter four by applying “point of view”,“narrative voice”and “free indirect discourse”, Austen successfully establishes women’s voice andachieves women’s authority over men, which makes a model of pioneering forfemale writing. The last chapter is the conclusion. The analysis of Emma with thefeminist criticism and feminist narrative approaches can provide some usefulreference for the further literary studies.