英语毕业论文：论美国女权主义文学的发展历史及对美国的意义.doc

Abstract The analysis of feminism literature becomes more important in American literature. There are two main reasons: firstly, the recognition in the 1960s of feminism’s movement as a significant part of an American culture is growing .secondly, literature started to excavate solitary and unfair woman writers and their works, they analyze and distinguish woman character’s image in the literature works. They are critical about woman writers’ works, they created from women’s point of view to portray woman character’s image. 1970s to 1980s, American woman writers appear quickly, they created a lot of good works and get much reward. American literature grows more and more prosperous. Feminism refers to the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men .And the term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women, so it has profound social and historical significance. This paper will summarize the history of its development and the profound significance to America. Keywords: Feminism literature, Right significance; Feminism’s movement 摘 要 分析女权主义运动对美国越来越重要了。这有两点原因，第一，首先承认1960年的女权主义运动是美国文化成长的一个重要组成部分。其次，文学界开始发掘被埋没的或不公正地受到冷落的女作家以及她们的作品，对现有文学作品的评论进行再评论，并从女性的观点进行创作，塑造新的女性人物形象。在70年代至80年代里，美国女作家迅速崛起，创作了大量的优秀作品，多次获重要奖项，是美国文学界出现了蒸蒸向上的新气象。女权主义运动是为争取妇女在政治、经济和文化诸方面跟男子要有同等的地位。 所以它有着深刻的社会意义和历史意义.本文将总结美国女权主义文学的发展历程和对美国的巨大意义！ 关键词：女权主义文学，女权运动，意义 Contents Abstract I 摘 要 II Ⅰ Introduction 1 ⅡThe development of American feminism Literature 3 2.1Women-centered Criticism………... ………………………………………………………….4 2.2 Rise of Feminist Literary Theory 4 III Famous works in American Fminism Literature 5 IV The Profound Influence 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Acknowledgements 13 Ⅰ Introduction Feminism literary criticism is a kind of literary criticism theory that is woman-centered, open and deconstructive, which sprang up in sixties of 20th century. It is the fruit of feminist movement permeating through literary and cultural area in the west. Through tracing to the source of western feminism literary criticism and sorting out its basic conceptions, the thesis further discusses how this feminism. Feminism refers to the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men .And the term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women. Feminism involves political, cultural and sociological theories, as well as philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference. At first, I did not quite understand its exact definition before I read this. What I took granted that feminism is women fight for freedom. In order to enrich my knowledge of feminism, I have read some articles and several movies about it. I can not talk about it what I learn and think, so I only set some examples Early 20th century to the 20th century 60's, the world experienced two world wars, collapse of the colonial system, various contradictions in the new line up, feminists in this period of great turmoil also raised, feminism during this period diverged into a Kate Millet, Catharine Mackinnon other people on behalf of the “radical feminism” .Juliet Mitchell represented by “Marxist / socialist feminism,” and to Betty • Buddhist representatives in Denmark and other man-made “liberal feminism.” Marxist / socialist feminism primarily economic and class struggle for the demands of women and men equal, and demanded women's position in the material. The “radical feminism” and “free feminist” is in the “sex” aspect of women's demands “liberation.” They challenge the entire male community to challenge the “sex class” system. American Kate Millett, in her “sexual politics” (1970) first introduced the “patriarchy” concept; she believed that the root causes of women's oppression is “patriarchy.” They will complete opposition to women and men: men are the enemy, women are friends; men are violent, women are gentle; man are persecuted, women are the victims of persecution; men are oppressors, women are oppressed; men of war traffickers, womenare pacifists; men are winners, women are losers; man who is a personal centrism, women are relationship oriented person. The cause of feminism movement in USA in 1960’s: After the Second World War, the contradiction between the conservative gender awareness and development of economic life, the intensification of social contradictions are the reason for the rise of the women's movement again. Social and historical background of the feminist movement: first, female education had slow progress, while “women's secondary school” (female academy) was built in the 18th century, the women's form of “private schools for girls” (female seminary) was built in the turn of the century. “In these schools, women found they intelligent, also experienced a strengthening of women's society, aware of women and men of different special mission.” Second, because of economic development, home economy and operating was separated .Men was out to work to support their families, while women was increasingly being detained at home. At that time, physicians and educators in general think that women's brain and nervous system is not stable enough, not sufficient to maintain the intellectual jobs. Traditional female occupations, such as midwives, have basically been replaced by men. More and more women were not achieving their self-worth, in area of opportunities greatly increased for men and women's activities are more and more narrow the world. Well-educated middle-class women particular felt their opportunities decline. Middle-class women were frequently detained in fertility and heavy domestic duties at home. Some of them thus engaged in the Gospel and want to improve their own values reflected in the form of community. New York's women had most high enthusiasm for the reform. The meaning of the feminist movement: Feminist movement is a major source of female experience and motivation of social theory and political movement. Apart from critique to social relations, many supporters of feminism also focus on the analysis of gender inequality and promoting women's rights, interests and issues. ⅡDevelop of American feminism literature In the system of West feminist literature theory, American school is initially famous for its attention attached to textual analysis. But actually, since WWⅡ, America’s Feminist Literary Criticism has undergone a process shifting from simply focus on textual analysis to the conclusion of theories. Its development can be generalized as the following four phases. Phase Ⅰ Women’s Image Criticism Women’s image criticism starts booming in 1960s. Its central task is to stand on a resisting reading point of view and take the feminine viewpoint as the center, so as to reread the masculine text and point out that it is a distortion of women’s life to consider women in such a rigid stereotype, either as an angel, or a witch or as the source of trouble. It exposes and criticizes the Phallus Centrism in these texts and goes deep into the social, historical and cultural roots of this idea. The representative works of women’s image criticism are Mary Bellman’s Thinking about Women, Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics and Judith Fryer’s The Faces of Eve, Women in Nineteen Century American Novel. Among these, Sexual Politics is the most influential one; it is regarded as the milestone for the maturation of Feminist Literary Criticism. In Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics, she persuasively analyzes the andocentric and tendency of sexual violence in the works of Norman Mailer、Henry Miler and Jean Gannet. Through careful reading, she thinks that D ·H· Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley's Lover lets the feminine character worship the masculine character, thus has constructed a religion for masculine worship. Kate Millett thinks we should not only take “Politics” in a narrow sense, but rather take it as a power that one group of people uses to control another. Women’s image criticism is deeply influenced by Theory of Reader-Reception. It effectively subverts the authority of the male author and thus availably resists the male-central thought in literature. Since women’s image criticism is no longer the highlight of literature when people starts to accept the West feminist literature ideologies, its influence on feminist literature is not so big as that of women-centered criticism. However, many scholars, such as Josephine Donovan and Arlyn Diamond, have made achievements in research on feminist literary criticism. We are enlightened by western women’s image criticism. at the same time; we can analyze characteristics of gender awareness in feminism literature with regard to unique conditions of American literature. In Gender Awareness of American Literature I have analyzed the complex situation of coexisting of Male-Centered awareness and respect to female rights in writings of some classic authors including Mary Ellmann and Emily Dickinson. I think that although importance of female is acknowledged in America, yet American Culture is still Male-Centered culture. The reason is that female is identified as a tool of carrying on the ancestral line in male family rather than a principal part. Women-centered Criticism America’s Feminist Literary Criticism has gradually shifted its attention to the research on the achievements of women’s literature since the beginning of mid 1970s. Women-centered criticism focuses on the production of women’s literature, the history of women’s literature and the aesthetic characteristic of women’s literature. It intends to build up a female author’s literary tradition, which is different from the man’s while co-exist with it. In this tradition, women’s physiological experience, psychological experience and female culture are all respected and they can discuss these in their own terms. Elaine Showalter’s A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing is the most influential representative work of women-centered criticism. It affirms the existence of the tradition of women’s literature and goes deeply into the basic characteristics of this tradition. It categorizes female literature, black literature and Jewish literature into subculture. This effectively subverts the literature tradition of male centre. The most influential work of women-centered criticism is The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman Writer and Nineteenth Century Literary, co-authored by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. It holds the view that female writers have an anxiety of authorship in a patriarchal cultural environment. In order to get a legal authorship, they tend to use bi-vocal as female textual strategy, therefore playing a role of subverting the male-centered culture. They think the mad woman in Jane Eyre is the other side of Jane and she is a symbol of women’s suppressed creativity. They hypothesize a true woman hiding behind the patriarchal text and point out that the task