Oppression, Awaking,and Revolt-An Analysis Of Discourse In Earlier American New Women Writers’ Literary Works

From late nineteenth century to early twentieth century in American, a group of new women writers have sprung up. Different from traditional women writers who praise the creed of true woman and angle in the house, new women writers are during the period of awakening and revolting. Many of their works express the theme of oppression and revolt with some astonishing, aggressive heroines. Foreign scholars have done synchronic researches on these new women writers’ creations. They have done researches on aspects such as their literary works’ awakening and revolting themes, queer narrative structures, adoption of madness, suicide, aggressive behaviors and so on. With the application of Michael Foucault’ s discourse theory and Lacan’ s mirror stage theory, this thesis digs into the oppression, awakening, and revolt of characters in three short stories The Story of an Hour, The Yellow Wallpaper, and The Revolt of “Mother” respectively created by new women writers Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Mary Wilkins Freeman. By voicing out their own voices, these revolting characters succeed in fighting with oppression under patriarchal discourse in their own ways.This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter reveals that these three heroines are not only silenced but also disciplined by powerful patriarchal discourse. The second chapter focuses on heroines’ awaking stage. They go through the mirror stage and awake from their lack in discourse. The last chapter focuses on their revolt. By constructing their own discourses and liberating their disciplined bodies, these characters find ways to fight against the oppression of patriarchal discourse. The last part concludes that characters created by new women writers heroically go against patriarchal discourse and construct their own discourse as a way to win their own discourse power.