A Study Of Gaskell's Social-Problem Novels From The Perspective Of Feminist Narratology

Elizabeth Gaskell(1810-1865)is one of the greatest critical realist writers in the Victorian Age and is praised as Britain's "distinguished novelist" by Marx.Her works reflect social problems and female dilemma in society in the process of industrial development.Employing the contrastive techniques,Gaskell depicts in detail the relationships between village and city,workers and capitalists,women and men.She also expresses her profound concerns about social development.Gaskell makes great contributions to the development of British critical realism literature in the nineteenth century.This thesis analyzes the construction and development of female narrative authority in Gaskell's social-problem novels Mary Barton and North and South on the basis of feminist narratology,employing theories of narratology and feminist literary criticism as complement.Feminist narratology combines theories of narratology and feminist literary criticism in order to discuss the process female writers construct female voices and female authorities in the text.Female characters in the two novels both attempt to break through the traditional identity positioning of women and gain their right of speech when confronting with the development of themselves and society.Gaskell focuses more on female issues.Because of women's special roles in patriarchal society,as the essential members of society,they are restricted and excluded by social values dominated by patriarchal society.Women's social space is so simple to be restricted to family field that they lost self-values.The thesis shows female characters'strong desires when attempting to participate in social affairs through the comparison between the two novels.The ideology of the society reveals its female consciousness with the characteristics of the era.Women begin to consider about how to show their self-value so that female consciousness could be adopted and accepted by society again.Gaskell also regards working class as women,who are oppressed by society.As vulnerable groups,working class and women seek for their rights and identity recognition.According to the analysis of feminist narrative viewpoints and feminist narrative content in the two novels,the thesis draws a conclusion that vulnerable groups should express appeals in order to protect their own rights;meanwhile,as the important members in society,women should grow up to more strong and independent when facing the identity transformation.They should make the best of their advantages to achieve female consciousness and self-values so that the social evaluation system could improve in the future.