| The biographical drama film, The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, was a story adapted from the life experience of the “first modern lesbian” Anne Lister who was a landowner, industralist, traveller and mountaineer. The film tells about how Anne abtained happiness through defying against traditional society and self-construction of identity in early 19 th century. For a long time, Anne's story hasn't been paid tantamount attention due to the cryptic style of dairy keeping and people's doubtness to the authenticity of these diaries. Until now, researches and papers about Anne Lister are very limited in number. In China, researches about Anne can hardly be found; in west, researches are taking its progress. Recently, researches about Anne Lister mainly focus on identity construction, lesbian history and female inheritance, etc. By utilizating queer theory, this thesis aims at analyzing Anne Lister's pursuit for happiness through defiance against heterosexual hegemony and lesbian identity construction.Homosexuals, especially female homosexuals, had not formed into a common conception in Anne's time. Unlike “pedastry”(male homosexuals) which might be praised or derogated in 19 th century society, female homosexuals were deemed as non-existant. The reason for choosing this film as a text results in its revealation of both the history of lesbian and Regency women's real life. Anne's existance not only demonstrated her first modern lesbian identity but also manifested a totally different picture of women lived in early 19 th century.Here is the logic order of this thesis. The first part begins with the analysis of the oppression from heterosexual hegemony suffered by Anne Lister. The second part intends to demonstrate Anne Lister's defiance against heterosexual hegemony by utilizing gender performativity theory. The last part will analyzes Anne Lister's self-construction of lesbian identity from social circumstance and innherent desire. |
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