An Analysis Of Stardust In The Perspective Of Feminist Rhetorical Criticism

Feminist rhetorical criticism is an essential paradigm in western rhetoric. It originated from feminist movement and progresses with the evolvement of rhetoric.Feminist rhetorical criticism provides a perspective to analyze a certain artifact and the aim of which is to disclose gender discrimination, fight against patriarchy and promote the construction of a fair, equal and harmonious society. Different from literature criticism, rhetorical criticism focuses on how symbolic means is used to affect people’s thought, how a gender based society is formed and how to induce cooperation on others. From a narrow view, feminist rhetorical criticism concentrates on gender inequality. From a broad view, it can be applied to analyze all phenomena related to domination.Using the film Stardust as its artifact, this thesis is a practice in light of feminist rhetorical criticism. From a narrow view, the thesis academically has two purposes. First, it aims to discover in the artifact how a patriarchy world is constructed, including how women are marginalized while how men are placed in the center possessing the power of domination. Second, the thesis tries to disclose what message the artifact delivers to audience, i.e., possible effects the artifact exerts on audience, for example, what is appropriate for a man and what kind of women deserve a good life. From a broad view, this thesis hopes, through its application of feminist rhetorical criticism, to inform more people of gender equality, to encourage more people to question those seen as naturalness, thus making due contribution to women’s liberation from domination.