An Interpretation Of Female Subject Consciousness In In America From Postmodern Feminism Perspective

Susan Sontag is a well-known American writer, literary critic and feminist. Her works cover a wide range of subjects, like reviews on times and culture that present sharp criticism on different aspects of American social culture, which are considered as the spokesmen of “the other side” of American society. So she is praised as “American Public Consciousness”. International and domestic studies on Susan Sontag focus more on her literary ideologies than on her novels. In America is another famous novel which was written after The Benefactor, Death Kit and Volcano Lover. It aroused great attention after its publication and won Sontag the “National Book Award” and the “Jerusalem Prize”.Susan Sontag acquired the inspiration for the novel from the life, career and immigration experience of Poland’s most celebrated actress, Helena Modrzejewska in the nineteenth century. The heroine Maryna gave up her acting career and immigrated to America with her husband, her son and her friends. They suffered failure in pursuing their dream. For the purpose of survival, Maryna decided to return to the stage eventually, which became the beginning of her successful acting career. During the construction process of the novel, Sontag combined historical details, emotional description and modern consciousness in order to present the postmodern characteristics in the novel. In 1876, at the age of thirty-five, Maryna became a well-known actress with her own effort. But she was bored with the acclaim and compliment around her. Middle-aged physiological and psychological crisis happened to her. As an independent woman, she would rather strive for the real herself than yield to the pressure coming from males. This is the reason why she made up her mind to immigrate to America and settle down in California. They hoped to realize self-innovation in a simple community. But after a few months, their Utopia community failed because of bad management. In order to overcome the economic difficulties, Maryna went back to the stage.The novel combines historical reality and social criticism and applies postmodern feminism theories to show the process of Maryna’s self-realization, which also presents the difficulties for women to acquire independence and freedom. Postmodern elements are well presented in the novel. Sontag made brave innovation in narration. She demonstrated the inner state of the characters through different forms, such as monologue, diary and letter. She also applied different narrators, like the anonymous narrator, Maryna and Bogdan. The novel ended with the discussion between Maryna and the American actor Edwin Booth. The open ending predicted that both Maryna’s artistic pursue and her self-improvement would never stop.The thesis consists of three parts, namely introduction, main body and a conclusion.Some background information are given in the introduction, including lifetime of the writer Susan Sontag and her major works, brief introduction of In America and comments on it, as well as the aim and significance of this thesis.Three chapters constitute the main body:The first chapter mainly illustrates the substances and characteristics of feminism and postmodern feminism, introducing the emergence and development of postmodern feminism and its inner connection with feminism, which lay a theoretical foundation for the analysis of this novel.The second chapter analyses the novel with postmodern feminism theories from two aspects, which are structure and content. Major postmodern feminism theories include female power and discourse right, female subject view, female view difference and female body concept. Through the analysis, it can be seen that under the influence of postmodern feminism culture, female subject consciousness has been aroused.On the basis of postmodern feminism theories, the third chapter presents the great effort Maryna has made for her self-transformation and self-improvement after her self-awareness had been inspired and the process during which she has realized the real herself in patriarchy world.Since this novel develops about the social and female life experience in the nineteenth century, this thesis aims to interpret the female subject consciousness in the novel from postmodern feminism perspectives. It will mainly analyze the process of self-realization after female consciousness was inspired.The conclusion generalizes and summarizes the whole novel. This thesis analyses female subject consciousness in the novel In America with postmodern feminism theories, presenting the pressure and challenges women face in realizing self-fulfillment in Patriarchal Society, which fully explains that women must struggle for their rights and freedom. Besides, the analysis gives the novel great real and social significance.