The Description Of “Labor” And Women In The Seventeen Years’ Rural Subject Novels

In 1949-1966, “labor” occupied a central position in social activities. Women’s participation in “labor” was also an important characteristic of this period. This paper tries to enter into the context of “the seventeen years”, and studies on the description of “labor” and women in the novels(mainly are rural subject novels) with a more objective attitude.The socialist economic construction became the primary task of the whole society after the new born China consolidated its political power. The massive construction activities in industry and agriculture brought about the shortage of male labor. So the mobilization of women as labor supply became an inevitable strategy. In addition, women were willing to get out of the house and participate in “labor”. It is because these women had a national identity to the new country, and they recognized the importance of "labor" when they were inspired by the “utopian dream” or some other factors, such as models and recognition. Therefore, under the realistic background, there has interaction or negotiation between “labor” and women in the seventeen years’ novels.In the “Labor” context, female images in novels also show special characteristics.Progressive women, as one of the two types, their appearance, personality, and spiritual beliefs created in “labor” became an aesthetic in that time. And they were praised and became a moral evaluation standard because of their industry and loyalty in love. Another kind is problem women. Their main “problem” is that they didn’t want to work. But authors often gave them labels of “lazy” or “not chaste” in order to compare them with the progressive women, and stimulated readers to give moral criticism to them. So the “legitimacy” of “labor” can be strengthened. The reason why these characters present similar types has a close relationship with the atmosphere,political environment and literature idea of that time.Liberation of women in “The May 4th Movement” was produced in the liberation of personality trend. Liberation of women in “the seventeen years” was different from that, because it was launched by the country. “Labor” gave these women a chance to get the corresponding economic and political status in the firsttime. And then not only made them recognize their own value, but also gave changes in their marriage and concept of love. But “labor” had its imitation in the liberation of women. We can see that these women still needed to take most of the family responsibilities when they participating in “labor” from the description of the seventeen years’ novels. Besides, participating in this collective labor showed the equality of men and women, but this equality also ignored the physiological differences between male and female.