Obedience And Resistance:A Study On Anne Bradstreet's Feminist Consciousness Dilemma In Her Poetry

Anne Bradstreet(1612-1672)is recognized as the“Mother of American Literature”for she starts the female literary tradition in British North American Colony Land and makes her poems published successfully.As the first female writer,her status and influence to the whole American literature history should not be neglected until now.Her poems are criticized as a reflection of early American women's writing and living conditions in 17~thh century under the dominance of Patriarchal system and Puritanism.So analyzing her poems helps reveal the oppression on women from early American Colonial society,and her advanced feminist consciousness in her struggle for women equal rights in writing and living.This thesis takes Bradstreet's public poetry and family poetry as the main research objects,and analyzes the feminist consciousness embodied in her poems from the point of view of feminism.According to analysis,the feminist consciousness of Bradstreet meets the“dilemma”as showing great contradiction.On the one hand,her poetry shows her forced obedience to Patriarchal rules,which is reflected in her imitation of the male writing paradigm,her acceptance of the stereotypical image of housewives,and her adherence to the Puritan doctrine that serves Patriarchy.On the other hand,she reveals her resistance to male oppression,which is reflected in her subversion of the male writing paradigm and the criticism of the traditional female family roles,and the struggle between religion and mundane.Therefore,on the basis of two aspects of feminist consciousness,Bradstreet is trapped in a more contradictory dilemma.Although Bradstreet's feminist consciousness shows great contradiction,considering her social and historical environment,her feminist consciousness is advanced and progressive.Also this study puts Bradstreet's poetry under the perspective of Elaine Sowalter's feminist criticism and uses the method of literature research to probe into Bradstreet's contradictory feminist consciousness from a dialectical perspective.In the light of Showalter's division of the tradition of female literature,there are three phases in the development of female writers'literature,that is,“of the imitation feminine phase”to“of the resistance consciousness feminist stage”to“of the self-discovery female stage”.In her writing,Anne Bradstreet embodies the contradiction between“feminine”and“feminist”phases,her feminist consciousness is also swinging between“obedience”and“resistance”.She fails to reach the third phase of“self-discovery female phase”,which shows a more objective insight between two genders.So her feminist consciousness is always in the“dilemma”.For such a female writer with“epoch-making”significance,the research on her is still in a relatively barren land in China.Therefore,the in-depth exploration of the first female writer of America is still worth paying attentions.And this study provides a reference for readers to understand the writing and living status of early women in Colonial America.At the same time,it aims to enlighten modern women to think about the relationship between men and women and pay attention to the development of their self-consciousness.This is the significance of the research to Anne Bradstreet's feminist consciousness“dilemma”.