A Study On The Female Consciousness In The Novel "Cat In The Rain" From The Perspective Of Critical Discourse Analysis

Hemingway was one of the prominent writers in America after World War I, whoproduced a great number of classical novels and short stories in his life.“Cat in theRain” is a short story that he depicts women the most delicate and the most appealing.This story tells about an American couple who traveled in Europe. And the cat is theclue that runs through the whole text and through the cat’s suffering; the thesis tendsto reveal the female consciousness in the male-centralism society. This thesis tries toanalyze the text “Cat in the Rain” by means of the combination of the theory ofsystemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis, to find out how thetheme is expressed via language, to reveal the ideologies hidden in the story, and toenable readers to understand and appreciate the story better.Through adopting the integration of the theory between CDA and SFL, the thesisanalyzes the text “Cat in the Rain” from the dimensions of text, discursive practiceand social practice in order to answer what kind of discursive strategies the author useto express the awakening of female consciousness and what the hidden ideology isimplied in the short story. Through the critical discourse analysis, we have got thefollowing major findings:1. As one of the comprehensive attempts to apply the framework of CDA to Catin the Rain, this study demonstrates its utility and feasibility.2. Although Hemingway says nothing about the couple’s relationship, theanalyses of ideational and interpersonal meanings indicate that their relationship issour and they are emotionally estranged. Besides, the analysis of the role exchangereveals that the two are not on equal footing. It is the husband who is in thedominating position while the wife is subordinate to the husband.3. The analysis of discursive practice enables us to have a clear view of how thewhole story is developed. The writing skills of camera records, repetition andmetaphor all contribute much to the depiction of the awakening of femaleconsciousness and women’s suffering in the male-centralism society.4. The analysis of social practice let us have a deeper understanding of the novel.The criteria of social and historical determinants and covert ideology will enablereaders to see why female consciousness awakens in the male-centralism society at that time.This thesis shows that critical discourse analysis and interpretation gives insightinto the characteristics of language, power and ideology presented in the literaryworks. Linguistics can provide objective measure for the analysis of literary works.Meanwhile, this study also proves the applicable features of functional linguisticswhich is the foremost theoretical foundation of critical discourse analysis.