A Study On Feminine Consciousness Of Xia Xie Novels In Late Qing Dynasty

Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty,one of the novel schools in Qing Dynasty,appeared in the latter half of the 19 th century.They are full-length chapter novels with the theme of the prostitutes.Its name originates from Lu Xun’s book,which name is a brief history of Chinese fiction.As a special group,prostitutes of the Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty were on the edge of society.Meanwhile,in the business environment,they were also the first group of women to feel the drastic changes in social politics,economy and culture.Their values and thoughts had also undergone great changes.Their business consciousness,equality consciousness and self-determination consciousness began to take root in their hearts.This paper takes the Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty as the research text,and takes the prostitute characters in the works as the research object.This paper analyzes and discusses the feminine consciousness of prostitutes in the Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty by combining the relevant knowledge of thematology,imagologie and feminist theory.This paper consists of three parts.The first part(including the first chapter and the second chapter)mainly introduces the research purpose and significance,research status,research scope and research methods of feminine consciousness of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty,to clarify the concept of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty,trace and analyze the reasons for the rise of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty,and summarize the development process of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty.The second part(the third chapter)is the core chapter of the this paper,which focuses on the embodiment of feminine consciousness of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty,from four aspects: the awakening of subjective consciousness,the recovery of gender consciousness,the return of human nature consciousness,and the free choice of love and marriage.Prostitutes had established their self-consciousness,independence consciousness and freedom consciousness,which reflects their awakening of subjective consciousness.They had strived for social respect and challenge the dominant position of male chauvinism,showed the recovery of gender consciousness.At the same time,they also had launched a bold pursuit of desire and spirit,reflected the return of human consciousness.In the face of love and marriage,some of them have had pursued mutual affection,some were desperate for love,some were eager to return to families,and some had fighted for the freedom of sex,which had showed their independent choice and free control of love.The third part(the fourth chapter)analyzes the value and limitation of feminine consciousness of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty.The prostitutes of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty attacked the feudal sexual order,subverted the feudal marriage concept,challenged the traditional fatalism,and had enlightenment significance for the women’s liberation of later generations.However,due to the gap between ideal and reality,the contradictory thoughts of male writers,the incomplete awakening of women themselves and other reasons,it was inevitable that there were some limitations of the feminine consciousness in the works.Combining with the special social and cultural background in late Qing Dynasty,this paper deconstructs the feminine consciousness of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty from the perspective of feminist research,which helps us to grasp the image of prostitutes better of Xia Xie novels in late Qing Dynasty,understand the works deeply,understand the development and changes of women’s status represented by prostitutes in late Qing Dynasty,and the development and evolution of feminine consciousness in ancient China.