Sisterhood In The Girl From The Perspective Of Female Bildungsroman

The Girl is the masterpiece of American left-wing writer Meridel Le Sueur(1900-1996).This work was written in 1939 but was not officially published until 1978 by West End Press.Based on the life experiences of the lower classes in the Great Depression,this novel tells the stories of a female group in an illegal pub in St.Paul,and reveals the awakening of their gender and class consciousness.Since its publication,The Girl has attracted the attention of some foreign scholars,who have studied the work from the perspectives of feminism,narratology,American culture and interdisciplinary,etc.In China,however,little attention has been given to Le Sueur and her works due to various reasons.The Girl is an important achievement of American left-wing female literature.The research on it will provide a new perspective for the study of American left-wing literature,and contribute to excavate and restore the female voice and tradition in American left-wing literature.Sisterhood is the prominent theme of The Girl and it is also an appropriate perspective to understand American female literature,especially that in the old left-wing period.Based on the theory of female bildungsroman,this thesis will analyze the manifestation of sisterhood in The Girl and expound that sisterhood is the spiritual pillar of the female group in the helpless predicament.The female community based on sisterhood is the positive exploration of the women who aim to realize self-redemption and construct individual identity within the female group.This thesis consists of four chapters in addition to Introduction and Conclusion.The first part is Introduction.It mainly introduces the life and literary achievements of Le Sueur,the story of The Girl and its literature review abroad and home.The first chapter introduces the theoretical framework of the thesis.Taking the development of American left-wing female literature as the background,this chapter firstly explores the typical writing mode of the old left-wing female literature,that is,the growth mode,and then introduces the concept and characteristics of the female bildungsroman.Sisterhood as a dominant theme in the works of American left-wing female writers has been expounded and then the development and evolution of the concept of sisterhood have been introduced.The second chapter elaborates on the manifestation of sisterhood between the mother and the daughter in The Girl.Starting from the concept of female historicity,this chapter analyses the growth and transformation of the girl under the guidance of her mother,a spiritual mentor,and points out that the relationship between mother and daughter is also a special kind of sisterhood.Finally,the girl achieves the transformation of the role from a girl to a mother,which embodies the inheritance and innovation of sisterhood.The third chapter analyses the sisterhood between the girl and her fellow friends in The Girl,and points out that this kind of sisterhood is a sort of mutually beneficial relationship and functions as a mirror,which could reflect their own images.In the process of the girl?s growth,Clara has made a great influence upon her.Under the influence of Clara,the girl is more conscious of the social causes of the difficult situations of herself as well as women around her.The fourth chapter discusses the sisterhood among female groups.Under the guidance of the spiritual leader Amelia,the girl accomplishes the political awakening and integrates into the female community based on sisterhood.The female community is the strong reliance for women,where they could find a sense of belonging and existence.The last part of this thesis is Conclusion.The pursuit of sisterhood in The Girl is the product of the times and it also reveals Le Sueur?s own reflections on the plight of the proletarian women at the bottom of society.Sisterhood plays an important role in guiding,assisting and sublimating the girl?s growth.The construction of the female community based on sisterhood is the embodiment of the wakening of gender and class consciousness of the female group.Although it is clear that the female community based on sisterhood is fragile and unstable,women?s efforts to strive for their rights and achieve equality and freedom are not meaningless.