Power Relations From Perspective Of Field Theory

The research of de Bary,an eminent American sinology,pays primary attention to Asian history and civilization,who especially explores the development and relevant problems of Chinese Confucianism from multiple perspectives.In his Asian Values and Human Rights: A Perspective from Confucian Communitarian,de Bary allocates the seventh chapter “Women's Education and Women's Rights” to the discussion of situations of Chinese women in the traditional society of Confucian patriarchy.By adopting an internal approach and tracing development of key concepts about women in traditional Confucianism,de Bary compares inheritance and innovation of Confucianism by female writers and descriptions from observers under non-Confucian cultures.This thesis tries to reveal power relations by exploring standpoints of different descriptions of women's situation in the chosen text.This thesis would take the seventh chapter as analytical text and four types of characters of traditional women,female writers,Chinese feminist and western observer as objects of study.From the perspective of field theory of Bourdieu,this thesis analyzes two sets of hierarchical power relations: traditional women are manipulated by female writers,who are all controlled by the institution within field of Confucian culture;traditional doctrines are subverted by revolutionary feminist culture and aggressed by Western Christian doctrines beyond field of Confucian culture.The main body consists of three chapters.The first chapter analyzes the forming progress and class-specific features of habitus of all characters by exploring education influenced by stratified social structure.The second chapter illustrates how unequal possession of capital is acquired by all characters considering class background and social relations.The third chapter deals with practice of all characters and power relations contained by analyzing positions of all characters in the field.