Voice Of Women: Redefinition Of Female Gothic

With characteristics of horror,mystery,death and supernatural elements,the Gothic Novel,which comes into being from the late eighteenth century in Britain,has become a special and influential literary genre in the literary world.A lot of outstanding female writers have appeared during the rapid development of the Gothic Novel.They occupy a large proportion among the Gothic novelists and exert extensive and profound influence on the development of the Gothic Novel.Bront? sisters and Daphne du Maurier are the most famous ones among them.In 1976,Ellen Moers puts forward “Female Gothic” in Literary Women and defines it as Gothic Novels written by female writers.However,her definition seems a little broad.As a literary genre,the Female Gothic has its own uniqueness.It can be found that Female Gothic Novels break the mode of the Gothic Novel in the creation of Gothic atmosphere,characterization and female awareness to express female voice.The domestic images,natural environment and climate descriptions mirror the miserable living conditions and sensitive mind of downtrodden women vividly;feminized villain heroes,oppressed heroines and miserable Gothic villainesses become the main characters in Female Gothic Novels to express the outcry against male-dominated structures;the awakening of female awareness in Female Gothic Novels is the most important reason why Female Gothic Novels are different from Male Gothic Novels.As masterpieces of the Female Gothic in the history of British literature,Jane Eyre,Wuthering Heights and Rebecca have many similarities on the description of Gothic settings,characterization and the awakening of female awareness,which highlights the unique charms of the Female Gothic.Taking these three novels as the subject of study,this thesis redefines the Female Gothic by exploring the uniqueness of the Female Gothic.Due to the contributions of these female writers,Gothic literature are endowed with more profound meanings.The Female Gothic not only indicates the introduction of gender view into Gothic literature,but also explores new area for feminist literary studies.This thesis redefines Female Gothic as Gothic novels written by female writers,with distinctively feminist interests and tendencies to show women's fear and resistance of the patriarchy to go inside the living conditions and the state of mind of women in an objective way,and contributes to the study of Gothic literature and feminist criticism through a thorough analysis of the three Female Gothic Novels.