| The Cultural Revolution came to an end in 1976, and since then China has been undergoing reforms and liberalisation politically, socially and economically. The impact of liberalisation is extensively felt in the intellectual community. It has provided a much broader space in which intellectuals may review history, summarise experience, and to contemplate issues related to human rights and the value of human existence. In this relatively relaxed environment the voices of the Chinese female writers began to be heard again. In their novels, these writers have created many female figures after their own experience, and their insight into the innermost of the female psyche has made their works a significant contribution to the Chinese literary scene.; In this thesis, the focus is placed on the female image as created by contemporary Chinese woman writers in their novels during the period 1978--1987. These female figures are analysed and categorised with a view to identifying commonly held characteristics. An attempt is also made to relate the literary attributes of their writings to the broader picture of Chinese literature of the time.; This thesis represents research on the novels written by female authors who flourished between 1978 and 1987, during which period there was indeed an abundance of both writers and works. Writers have been included on the basis of whether their works can comprehensively represent the spiritual outlook of women, and among them there are veterans like Wei Junyi, Ru Zhijuan, Zong Pu and Ye Wenling, and those who did not begin to write in this genre until the late 1970's. This latter category includes those from the older generation, for example, Chen Rong, Li Huixin, Zhang Jie, Hang Ying, Cheng Naishan, Wen Bin, Hu xin, and Xu Naijian, and younger writers such as Lu Xinger, Zhang Kangkang, Qiao Xuezhu, Zhang Xinxin, Wang Anyi, Tie Ning, Fan Xiaoqing, and Chi Li. More recent writers who became prominent in the 1980's, such as Liu Xihong and Zhang Xin, are also within the purview of this thesis. The concern of these writers for the female predicament and the female psyche during the decade covered by the thesis has been carefully studied, and the result will allow us to better understand how these writers have contemplated their own fate. The thesis also brings to light the new outlook of the works of woman writers in China at a time when political and conventional yokes came to be removed, thereby serving a significant, timely purpose in terms of the chronicling of contemporary Chinese literature. |
