A Comparative Study Of Female Body Narrative In Chinese And Greek Mythology

The body is not only the material basis for human to understand and explain the world,but also the cognitive object for them to imagine and cognize the world in the early formation of myth.And with the development of society,people's understanding of the female body varies from the reproductive body to the imaginary objects of some kind of aesthetic,sexual,moral or other physical imaginations.Therefore,the narrative of feminine body in mythology reflects human's feelings and attitudes in different aspects of social culture,aesthetic feeling,male hegemony and the like.This paper intends to make a comparative study of female body narrative in Chinese and Greek mythology by careful observation of the different images of the female body both in the descriptions of the literary works and the presentations o f the paintings and sculptures,and therefore to explore the similarities and differences in the aspects of religious worship,aesthetic theory and the male hegemony behind the female body narrative.This paper is divided into four parts: The first part focuses on the human's early awareness of female body,and female body narrative presents two kinds of icon under the influence of female worship :one is the female totem-body form and the other one is humanized icon-body.The second part discusses the aesthetic change from the womb of totem worship and a strong sense of religious to the imagination and creativity of physical beauty.The narrative of physical beauty is mainly reflected in three aspects:Firstly,the forms and meanings of clothes and ornaments vary from “coat-consistency”to “coat-separation”.The second aspect is the spiritual temperament which the body performed,the former is feminine and delicate,the latter is sturdy and elegant.In the relationship between physical beauty and morality,the former presented the aesthetic separation between physical beauty and morality,and the latter is the unity of physical beauty and morality.The third part explores the alienation of female body in the male narrative from the perspective of feminism.In order to satisfy their sexual instinct,the males try to reduce and eliminate the temptation of physical beauty by means of describing female bodies as disasters or standardizing the female body as a moral symbol of chastity.The last part analyzes two ideologies of body consciousness which the female have in mythology:one is the disciplined body consciousness which includes sense of belonging and tools,the other one is females' autonomous body awareness which is supported by the remnant forces of matriarchy and psychological oppression of females.