Voiceless Women In Unless:From The Perspective Of Feminist Stylistics

Canadian writer Carol Shields was born in America in 1935,and grew up in a classical middle-class family and then immigrated to Canada.Her works include three collections of short stories,three books of poems,four plays and nearly ten novels,which made her win the Governor General's Award in Canada,the National Book Critics Circle Award,the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the Orange Prize for Fiction and so on.Her last novel Unless which was published in 2002 has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.It is often regarded as a work with some autobiographic sense and thus has great significance on the study of the feminist opinions of Shields.But this work has not got enough attention in China and the relevant studies are quite limited.The plot development of the novel is unfolded around the three generations--Lois,Reta and Norah.All the three female characters suffered voicelessness in different degrees.The powerless state in conversation with men in certain topics and the stereotypical knowledge towards women suggested female secondary and passive status in patriarchal culture.Through the analysis of the three characters' different changes after Norah's leaving from feminist stylistic perspective,this thesis aims to reveal the gender inequality existed in the text and encourage women to bravely protect their own voice,hoping to provide some reference for later studies on Carol Shields and her works.This thesis consists of five parts:Introduction,three Chapters and Conclusion.Introduction is a presentation to the accomplishments of Carol Shields as well as her life,and the previous studies on the author and her works,especially Unless.Chapter One makes an introduction to the three research methods--transitivity theory,turn-taking theory and characters/roles analysis--will be adopted in this thesis.Those methods will be helpful in uncovering the power relation between characters and studying feminist themes like silence.Chapter Two follows with the study of the silent Lois,a lonely widow,and Norah,a docile daughter,on the basis of characters/roles analysis.Both Lois and Norah are constrained by the moral norms like GOODNESS in patriarchal culture.They were taught to be qualified wives and mothers in various ways such as books,education and social tradition.After aware of female voicelessness,they chose to escape from reality and become more silent than before.Chapter Three deals with the voiceless state of Reta based on the three methods.Through the detailed analysis of Reta's silence,this part reveals the deep rooted gender inequality both at home and in society.Unlike Lois and Norah,Reta changed her ideas and behaviour toward male oppression,and finally got courage to make real resistance.Conclusion mainly talks about some major findings through this research.Firstly,the three characters represented two different kinds of women who suffered from male dominance.Secondly,Reta's brave resistance,Norah's returning home and Lois' s chatting with Springer at the end of the novel suggested Shields' optimistic feminist opinion: gender inequality has permeated various corners in society,but women should fight bravely against male oppression and their efforts will be rewarded.Finally,it also proves the feasibility of studying female silence from feminist stylistic perspective.