從現代性論中國現代女作家的小說作品

Abstract

Modernity, a new perspective of literary research, has become popular in recent years. However, it still 2lacks sufficient research within the traditional Chinese culture. Moreover, modernity has often been explored from western male viewpoints and its definition has not yet been accurately clarified.

To tackle the above issues, this thesis addresses the plight of Chinese female writers within Chinese literature and their imaginations of western modern society by native Chinese social environment. Based on traditional Chinese culture, this thesis aims to exhibit characteristics of modernity in Chinese literature. More specifically, this thesis investigates the experience of modernity within the novels of five modem Chinese female writers, including Yin LU (1899-1934), Xin BING (1900-1999), Shuhua LING (1900-1990), Lu GUAN (1907-1982), and Hong XIAO (1911-1942). The novels studied in this thesis were written from 1917 to 1949.

The thesis explores the novels of the above five writers from four dimensions, namely family, marriage, society, and nationality. Their main focused areas are first society and marriage, followed by family and nationality. The thesis tries to investigate the reasons of their focuses taking into account of the writers' family backgrounds, growing experiences, education, ideology, and social movements, where family background and childhood experience are the primary factors.

The thesis concludes that the investigated five writers being studied define modernity in Chinese literature in two aspects: self-identification of female subjectivity as well as self-examination of individuals and groups. Moreover, the thesis points out the deficiencies of the above five writers in three aspects: lack of rationality, the limitation of female subject recognition, and lack of fundamental understanding of traditional Chinese culture.

Date of Award	Jan 2015
Original language	Chinese (Traditional)
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Che Bun CHENG (Supervisor)