Ginny's Quest For Self-identity In A Thousand Acres From Spatial Perspective

A Thousand Acres has won widespread concern both at home and abroad for its deep description of female self-consciousness awakening.At present,academic field mainly explores the work from the perspective of writing technique,theme,culture,and character analysis while few studies have been done from the spatial perspective.Based on three spaces of Henri Lefebvre?s unitary theory which includes physical space,social space and mental space,this thesis adopts research methods of close reading and qualitative analysis,analyzing the causes of female protagonist Ginny?s self-identity plight and the representations of her self-identity quest.This thesis analyzes the causes of Ginny?s self-identity plight and the representations of her self-identity quest from three aspects: the influence of environment on subjectivity in physical space,the influence of culture on self-worth orientation in social space,and the influence of mental activities on self-cognition in mental space.In this thesis,the causes of Ginny?s self-identity plight are mainly presented by her being disciplined as a compliant farm business follower and a housewife in confined physical space,her being reduced to a reproduction tool in patriarchal social space,and her suppression of body femininity under the influence of trauma in unbalanced mental space.The representations of Ginny?s self-identity quest are mainly embodied by her getting rid of oppressed status in the confined physical space and pursuing financial and spiritual independence in a free physical space,her resistance to cultural oppression in the patriarchal social space and reevaluation of self-worth,and her reconstruction of harmonious mental space and acceptance of body femininity.Through the whole analysis,it can be found that self-identity plight results from the shackles of confined physical space,the culture prejudice in patriarchal social space,and the hidden trauma in unbalanced mental space.The confined physical environment restricts individual personality development,which leads to the absence of subjectivity.The patriarchal culture marginalizes women?s social status,which leads to the denial of women?s self-worth caused by infertility.The psychological trauma disturbs the individual?s self-cognition,which leads to the confusion of self-identity.At the same time,escaping from the confined physical space,resisting against the patriarchal social space and reconstructing a harmonious mental space are all representations of self-identity quest.By breaking free from the shackles of confined physical space,the individual regains subjectivity through stepping into a free development space.By resisting the patriarchal social culture prejudice against women?s self-worth,female individual realizes self-worth identification through getting rid of motherhood anxiety and oppressive social relations.By reconstructing a harmonious mental space,the individual realizes the identification of self-identity mentally through overcoming the negative impact of trauma.Through exploring Ginny?s self-identity quest from spatial perspective,this thesis hopes to broaden the connotation interpretation of A Thousand Acres and provide a valid example for the application of Lefebvre?s space theory in literary field.