A Study Of Feminist Stylistics Based On Tender Is The Night And Save Me The Waltz

Feminist stylistics is an important branch of socio-historical/cultural stylistics.It is built on the basis of the theory of stylistics,critical linguistics and feminism.Feminist Stylistics emphasizes that the analysis of the discourse is dependent on the social historical and cultural context that discourse production and reception happened.It also attaches great importance to the role of the reader.Its purpose is to help people to enhance awareness of language and power,expound the significance of gender and to criticize or reinterpret the explanation relating to gender.Tender Is the Night is a biographical novel written by F·Scott Fitzgerald,who is an outstanding American writer in the 20 th century,which has the value for stylistic study.His wife Zelda Fitzgerald’s autobiographical novel Save Me the Waltz is a model of feminist style.This study attempts to analyze Tender Is the Night and Save Me the Waltz from the perspective of feminist stylistics,and answer the following two questions:(1)What are the linguistic features of Tender Is the Night and Save Me the Waltz respectively at word,phrase/sentence and discourse levels from the perspective of feminist stylistics?(2)What female images are portrayed in Tender Is the Night and Save Me the Waltz respectively?With the help of corpus tool Lancsbox 5.0,feminist stylistics text analysis theory and transitivity theory,this study made a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.The study concluded:(1)At the word level,compared with Tender Is the Night,Save Me the Waltz has more substantial language,a higher lexical density,and a more informative text,which is somewhat difficult to understand.The text of Tender is the Night is easier to read.The language of Save Me the Waltz is highly visual and fragmented,and lacks logic.The text of Tender Is the Night is more logical,tightly structured and clearly narrated.At the phrase/sentence level,the sentences in Tender Is the Night are more complex and the relationship between men and women is more unequal.The male experiences are realized through the actions that act by men to women,and women are the passive recipients of men’s actions.The sentences in Save Me the Waltz are simpler.The relationship between men and women is more equal.Women are more active.Women’s experiences are gained by their own actions and feelings.At the discourse level,the fragmentation of female characters’ bodies in Tender Is the Night is the result of male gaze.Female characters are powerless and silent in it.The major reason for the fragmentation of female characters in Save Me the Waltz is labor.The female characters are self-aware and independent.(2)Rosemary and Nicole,the two female characters in Tender Is the Night,have completed the transition from being ignorant,powerless and dominated by patriarchal ideology to being self-reliant and independent.Alabama in Save Me the Waltz has a deeper and more rational understanding of the reality that women must work to be independent.This study not only enriches the study of feminist stylistics,but also enriches the relevant studies of the works of Fitzgerald and Zelda.It has enlightenment to the current people on the situation of women’s survival,labor,marriage and childbearing,as well as about the situation that how people view the patriarchal issues still retained in the media,literature and social life.