On Containment And Subversion In Margaret Drabble’s The Red Queen

Margaret Drabble(1939-) is one of the most influential female writers in contemporary British literary history. Her works have been explored by foreign scholars but were not widely spread in China until recent years. She is a prolific writer and her works are full of rich themes and skillful techniques. Most of her works reflect the plight of modern educated women, how to pursue the ideal lifestyle and break down the traditional thought of male chauvinism. Besides, her writing techniques have great originality which is mixed with realistic style of Austin and Bennett and novelty of Modernist. What’s more, her works are attached with the open ending, symbolic language and transcultural integration.The Red Queen presents the ancient Korean life of court, culture and modern life through narrative perspective of the ghost of the Crown Princess and her envoy, Halliwell. It is a unique female plight fiction beyond the limitation of space-time, territory and culture. The thesis juxtaposes ancient and modern characters who share lots of similarities in fate to realize the connection between the past and the present.This paper is divided into five parts. In the introduction, Margaret Drabble’s life, achievements and her work The Red Queen are briefly introduced. The introduction also consists of literature review, the definition of New Historicism, and the structure of the whole thesis. The first chapter is to re-evaluate history, rethink history and challenge historical discourses by the Crown Princess. Moreover, it highlights the close relationship of history and political power discourse by deconstructing the sagacious image of King Yongjo and reshaping the truth of “Imo Incident”. Then, in the second chapter, on the basis of texts and dialectical relation of subversion and containment, it presents the conflicts between father and son in the ancient and modern times through two groups of figures: Prince Sado and King Yongjo, Peter and his father. Rebellion and submission are caused by the lack of communication and understanding. This kind of cultural mechanism not only exists in Korean and British culture, but in the environment of human civilization. The writer hopes that suffering of the two characters could warn people against such a similar tragedy. The last chapter is to discuss the “self-fashioning” of two female characters and how they refashion themselves. Hence, in order to explore the construction of their self-identities, the extremely common experiences of the Red Queen and Barbara Halliwell are discussed through their anecdotes. Additionally, it shows the confrontation between the marginalized and mainstream discourses; at the same time their self-fashioning is realized by fighting against the aliens with subversion and containment.In conclusion, the thesis explores the history and its changes of power discourses from the perspective of New Historicism. Margaret Drabble is not influenced by the restraint of grand narrative, but subverts the recorded history. Moreover, the relationship of father and son comes to her mind and she makes use of the anecdotes of the marginalized characters to refashion history. It shows Drabble’s consideration of historical culture and attention of phenomenon of modern society.