The 'Innocent Women' In The Fiction Of Elizabeth Bowen

Elizabeth Bowen(1899?1973)is one of the well-known Anglo-Irish female writers during the early 20th century.Most of her heroines are as innocent as children,and most of her plots happen indoors,which are the two most recognizable features of her works.All in all,the subtle relationship between 'things and spaces' and 'the innocent women' could be a unique point of view to read her fiction and analyze her aesthetic.During her lifetime,Elizabeth Bowen finished 10 novels and produced a series of 'Bowen's heroines':the 'innocent women' with 'the Simple Soul'.Almost all of these female characters are childish,whatever the age.The writer herself described the character with the character of 'innocence' as 'the Simple Soul'and underline that the presentation of the Simple Soul 'requires Art':'Art in the sense of VISION'.In Bowen's fiction,which set in indoor spaces,'vision' is the 'house' with the sense of imagination and tableau,including its appearance and structure,its surrounding and its furniture.On the one hand,'house' is 'shelter' and 'wall'which can protect the innocent heroine,provide her with a stage of her own,but at the same time,it encages her,confines her to the childhood;on the other hand,the heroine is not accepted by the adult world because of her innocence and she is not good at languistic communication,so the 'house' may play the role of language under this condition and be the tool for her to construct her consciousness.In both of the two aspects above,'things and spaces' which is represented by the 'house' cannot simply be the material surrouding.It joins the modelling and the display of the heroine.That is just Bowen's'Art'.In this thesis,I'm trying to analyze the 'innocence' as 'either a deformity or a beauty' in Elizabeth Bowen's works on the basis of present research results,according to interpreting the aesthetic intention of the 'innocent women' in three of Elizabeth Bowen's novels,including 'The Last September','To the North' and 'The Death of the Heart',with the help of the Poetics of Space,the theory of Feminism and the social science.'Things and Spaces' will be the main perspective;social activity and romantic relationship will be the concentrated aspects.