A Diachronic Interpretation Of The Female Images Of Hong Lou Meng In English World From The Perspective Of Feminism

Hong Lou Meng is a brilliant pearl in the history of Chinese literature, and it acquainted itself with the west and began to be translated and introduced to the west in the early 19th century. Now the studies of this book exists not only in China, but also in the world. Studies of Hong Lou Meng in English world has experienced three stages:sprouting, developing, and upsurge. The studies of Hong Lou Meng in the English world have its own unique characteristic, which distinctly differ from Chinese Redology because of different cultural context. Research in the English world is not bound up in some non-literary factors such as exploring the writer’s family background and verifying the origin and development of different versions, but considers the novel as a piece of literary works and analyzes it under theory of western literature and art, which belongs to typical literary criticism. Hong Lou Meng creates many beautiful female images successfully, therefore many people think that Hong Lou Meng is a novel about females. It is also considered to be a novel beyond the time with feminist budding. Hence, quite a few works apply feminist literary criticism to the analysis of female images of Hong Lou Meng in English world.Feminist literary criticism was born in the late sixties of the 20th century, which is the result of the western feminist movements developing to the field of literature. Feminist literary criticism aims to reveal the inequality of women’s social status and build up women’s self-consciousness, requiring a new interpretation of literature works from a woman’s vision and criticizing the distortion of female images in male literary.This thesis firstly gives a diachronic combing to the works on female images in different periods of time in English world, and analyzes the interpretations of these female images from a Feminism perspective. The analysis of this thesis including the superficial interpretations in early times, analysis of tragic female images and women reading, androgyny, women rebellious spirits and female superiority under the guidance of feminist literary criticism. Then, this thesis systematically analyzes the misreading of female images of Hong Lou Meng in English world. Interpretations of female images in some works in English world fell into the trap of stereotype, for example, regard Wang Xifeng as a shrew simply. In addition, the interpretations of some women characters are too one-sided, and feminist criticism also abused in some works. Lastly, this thesis discussed the causes behind the misreading. First of all, western scholars lack of systematic understanding of the Chinese tradition and culture due to their own different education background and culture. Second, some westerners have self superiority and salvation unconsciously, which maintain the authority of western moral and culture in the subconscious and belittle Chinese women. Third, some western scholars apply western literary theories so mechanically that lead their interpretations far-fetched.Through a diachronic combing and induction analysis of female images of Hong Lou Meng in English world, this thesis aims to enrich the studying category of this novel to a certain extent and is looking forward to provide the beneficial reference to Chinese Redology by analyzing the horizon and methods of abroad Redology.