Feminism in The Awakening1

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1、女权主义在觉醒中的体现Feminism in The AwakeningContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction2II. Literature Review.31. The diversity of criticism on The Awakening32. Feminist criticism on The Awakening 5III. Feminist Critical Theories.6IV. Kate Chopins Background and Political Background8V. Analysis of the Prot

2、agonist and the Symbols in The Awakening91. Analysis of the main character: Edna .92. Analysis of the symbols in The Awakening 101) Birds.102) The sea.113) Clothes.11VI. Conclusion.11References.12Feminism in The AwakeningAbstract: Kate Chopins The Awakening is a most important piece of fiction about

3、 American woman. It enlightens the feminist movement, daringly reflects the theme of sex, and expresses the awakening of womens sexual consciousness and self-consciousness and their seeking for independent human dignity. However, when first published in 1899, it met with widespread hostile criticism

4、 because of its theme. Not only the book was removed from the library shelves in St.Louis, but also Chopin herself was rejected membership in the St.Louis Fine Art Club. Fortunately, it returned to the spot light because of the research work carried out by two European scholars some years later. Aft

5、er that, people began to study the novel from brand new angle, reaffirmed its significant exploration concerning problems of marriage, sex, and reestablished Kate Chopins status in the history of American Literature. The research is devoted to exploring the feminism implied in The Awakening, followi

6、ng some feminist critical theories and the background of The Awakening, and the background of Kate Chopin. Some ideas of feminist critics are used to reinterpret the novel. Then the importance of the symbols in the novel will be analyzed to help Chopin express the theme of feminism. Finally, the aut

7、hor gets the conclusion that The Awakening is a famous piece of fiction about the theme of feminism.Key words: Feminism; Symbol; Feminist Literary Criticism; The Awakening摘 要：凯特肖班的觉醒是一部讲述关于美国妇女生活的小说。该小说大胆的反映了女性性意识以及自我意识的觉醒，和对独立的人格尊严的追求这一主题，对女权主义运动有很大的启迪作用。由于主题过于敏感，导致小说以及肖班本人在很长一段时间内遭受到相当大的打击。多年之后在两位

8、欧洲学者的研究的推动下，小说与作者又重见天日。人们用新的视角来研读小说，肯定了它在探究女性在婚姻以及性等问题上的贡献，重新确立了肖班在美国文学史中的地位。本文致力于对隐含在小说中的女权主义的研究。通过对女性主义批评理论以及对时代背景的介绍，运用女权评论家的观点重新解读该书。通过对人物形象以及象征手法的分析来阐述肖班想要参阐述的女权主义主题。最后得出结论：该小说是一部重要的涉及女权主义主题的经典之作。关键词： 女权主义；象征；女权主义批评; 觉醒I. IntroductionKate Chopin has been considered to be a great American female

9、 writer and her reputation as major American writer has been on the increase ever since the feminist movement in what time hers The Awakening has been rediscovered. The novel, with its balance structure, poetic language, super use of symbols, especially its barely connotation has aroused interests o

10、f one generation after another.The critical focus on The Awakening has been shifting constantly. Critics interpret the novel from different angels, and come to different conclusions. The aim of this thesis is to reinterpret the novel from feminist critical perspectives. Due to the development of fem

11、inist movement, feminist criticism has gradually become one of the mainstreams in the critical world. It takes an electric critical stance and absorbs various theories to serve its own critical purpose. At the early stage, feminist critics focus on the interpretation of maleauthored text. After anal

12、yzing stereotypes of women in the works, they find that western culture has strong misogynistic tendencies. The main task of feminist critics is to uncover these misogyny assumptions which are widely pervasive in male writers works and help readers to end the subordination of women. Then, feminist c

13、ritics return to female writers to study their forgotten works. The recovery of a rich tradition of female writers helps readers to understand how earlier female authors are victimized by patriarchal society. In order to establish their own canon and to express womens experiences, feminist critics e

14、ncourage women themselves to create their “own” literature in their own language to subvert the man-dominated culture. Furthermore, feminists point out that the whole of ideology sets up binary oppositions. These binaries lead to a hierarchy. In other words, one of the binary terms achieves superior

15、 status in the culture and the other term is viewed as the inferior pole. So, feminists should deconstruct the binary oppositions to recuperate womens identity. Recently, feminist criticism focuses its attention on developing its own theoretical system to reinterpret the classic works. In this thesi

16、s, the writer is to make use of some feminist critical theories, methodology and some conclusions the criticism has arrived at to explore Kate Chopins feminist consciousness implied in The Awakening.Feminist ideas are part of the intellectual climate in which Kate Chopin lived. Influenced by her liv

17、ing background, and the ideological revolution of her time, Chopin nurtures her feminist consciousness. It is her feminist consciousness that contributes to the creation of Edna as a feminist precursor. Through disclosing Ednas persecution by the society, Chopin shows that Edna has been put in a mar

18、ginal position in the society. The marginalized status has aroused great sympathy from Chopin. And she suggests that a harsh suppression usually brings out a strong flame of rebel. Chopins feminist outlook can be reflected by Ednas rebellious thoughts and actions. In comparison with the male charact

19、ers, Edna has been given more prominence in The Awakening. Besides, Chopin exhibits her appreciation of Edna as a feminist precursor by elaborately delineating her individuality, which constitutes an important part of Ednas personality. In short, in The Awakening, Kate Chopin portrays a feminist fig

20、ure, Edna, through whom she expresses her feminist ideal. The thesis is divided into four main parts to explore feminism embedded in The Awakening. In the first part, literature review will be given. Different schools of interpretation of The Awakening will provide a panorama of the criticism on the

21、 novel. In the second part, a brief introduction will be given to feminist criticism. In the third part, Chopins living background information can help to show how Chopins feminist consciousness comes into being. The fourth part is the main part of the thesis. Detailed analysis of the main character

22、s, the symbols used in the novel will prove that Kate Chopin melts her feminist conscious into hers portrayal of a rebellious woman.After the analysis, the thesis draws a conclusion that Kate Chopin, in hers novel, has successfully interwoven hers feminist consciousness into the arrangement of the s

23、tory and portrayal of her main female character. Indeed, The Awakening in which feminism is embedded is a classic of womens literature, and Chopin is the pioneer of feminist movement.II. Literature Review 1. The diversity of criticism on The AwakeningShortly after the publication of The Awakening on

24、 April 22, 1899, some Americans reviewed on the Public Opinion, New York:“The Awakening written by Kate Chopin is a feeble reflection of Bourget. A, theme and manner of treatment both suggesting the French novelist? We very much doubt the possibility of a woman of “solid old Presbyterians Kentucky s

25、tock” being at all like Mrs. Edna Pontellier who has a long list of lesser loves-but we are well satisfied when Mrs. Pontellier deliberately swims out to her death in the water of the gulf” (22 June 1899). Truly, this remark not only indicates the astonishing impact which the novel brings to its con

26、temporary readers, but also predicates the diverse and endless concerns about it from that time on. With its broad connotation, delicate representation as well as its dazzling symbolical images, The Awakening has been focus of criticism over 100 years. Critics shift their attention to almost every a

27、spect of the novel from time to time. Some are interested in the ethical content; some are drawn by the polysemy of the theme; some try to interpret the impressive characters; some attempt to deconstruct the fascinating symbols used by the author to express hers ambivalent feelings and attitude. Inf

28、luenced by various literary, philosophical and psychological ideology and theories, critics read the story in terms of deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and aesthetics. We will read it in terms of feminism. All these approaches work because not only does Chopin successfully entertain a variety of pers

29、pectives in this novel, but it can sustain diverse criticism.Early reviewers call this novel as unhealthy; morbid; and immoral. They criticize the novels lack of apparent moral o lesson. The reviewers also declare a lack of sympathy or admiration for Chopins heroine:“At the very outset of the story

30、one feels that the heroin should pray for deliverance from temptation, and in the very closing paragraph, when, having removed every vestige of clothes she stands naked in the sun and walks out into the water until she can walk no farther, and then swims on into eternity, one thinks that her very su

31、icide is in itself a prayer for deliverance from evils that beset her ,all of her own creating”. (St. Louis Daily GlobeDemocrat, 13 May, 1899)It is not strange that the reviews are ironical because its theme is far ahead of its time. However, other reviewers also give some positive public reviews. T

32、hey credit the novels flawless art and declare the work an unusual, unique, complete masterpiece. The reviews admit, though, that because of the novels theme it should not be read by young, who would not understand it, or the old, who avoid unpleasant truth. Also some reviews hints the reviewers app

33、reciation for realism in the novel, as it credits, “It is the life and not the mask that it is subject of the story”. Furthermore, other reviewers, unlike some of them, appreciate a story that relates what life is, rather than desiring a story that depicts what life should be. They also suggest that

34、 Ednas resentment of her husbands inattention is the cause of her action. Instead of blaming Edna, like all of the other reviews, they seemed to blame her husband. Besides, there also have some accurate representation of public beliefs about The Awakening. While it praises the authors literary abili

35、ty it condemns her subject choice as vulgar and the novel as commonplace. By calling the novel commonplace, the reviewer relates his belief that literature should explore the ideal rather than real. Chopins novel is rooted in the real, and, therefore, is automatically situated for the criticism of a

36、 society resisting realism in literature. The review also reveals societys expectations for women through its criticism of Ednas rebellion. It condemns Edna for not finding “marriage and motherhood a cable strong enough to keep her from forming other attachments”. The review credits the death of “on

37、e who has drifted from all right moorings and had not the grace to repent”. Society, therefore, upholds Chopins criticism that social expectations provide women with only marriage or death. However, in addition to exploring moral teaching in the book, some critics emphasize symbolism in The Awakenin

38、g. For instance, birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements are powerful symbols which add meaning to the novel and to the characters. We will analyze the most relevant symbols presented in Kate Chopins literary work in the following part.Modern critics influenced by the latest development

39、of modern philosophy and psychology, implement some theories in interpreting The Awakening. They develop a textrelated approach to deconstruct the novel. Various schools of new interpretation boomed in the sixties or seventies of the 20th century. Psychoanalytic, archetypal, and phenomenological cri

40、ticism afford three examples of contemporary critical theories whose practitioners are skeptical of new critical or formalist analysis and interpret the novel from their respective stance. Feminist criticism, absorbing impetus from the womens liberation movement of that time, launches a new surge of

41、 interpreting the great work. The implementation of different theories in criticism indicates a new tendency in analyzing The Awakening2. Feminist criticism on The AwakeningSince feminist critics begin their criticism with revisiting books by male authors and reviewing them from a womans point of vi

42、ew to understand how they both reflect and shape the attitudes that have restricted women, then they change their mind into female writers and analyze female writers work. The Awakening seems to be natural subject for feminist criticism. Feminist critics of Kate Chopin employ a number of critical ap

43、proaches to arrive at their conclusions. For example, Jane Ball Howard comments that Chopin dares to write of the private needs of women, namely, education, the vote , rights to her own property and her own children, that the period tries to deny existed. Larzer Ziff wrote in The American 1890s: Lif

44、e and Times of a Lost Generation that the novel, was the most important piece of fiction about the sexual life of a woman written to date in American, and the first fully to face the fact that marriage, whether in point of fact it closed the range of womans sexual experiences or not, was but an epis

45、ode in her continuous growth on the very eve of the twentieth century it raised the question of what woman was to do with the freedom she struggled toward. Per Seyested, the author of Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography (1980), wrote that The Awakening, by delicate description of the reality, broke up

46、 the traditional fantasy which dominate peoples thought and vacillate the optimism of bourgeois ideas, moreover, it inevitably aroused the doubt of the idea-whether things existed would be everlasting, therefore, neither had the author show some solution directly, nor she indicated hers position, th

47、e book itself had already finished this mission. Although different feminist critics have interpreted the novel from different dimensions, none of their analyses has been necessarily dominant over others. And Kate Chopin herself is not easily categorized. My thesis, based on feminist theories and cr

48、itical approaches, will explore Chopins feminist conscious in portraying the female character, Edna, as a courageous rebel against the patriarchy society. Ednas revolutionary thoughts represent some aspect of the early feminist beliefs.III. Feminist Critical Theories Inevitably, the flourishing deve

49、lopment of womens liberation movement has exerted great influence over the ideology, culture and art of human society. Its appearance broadens peoples perspectives of looking at the world. And promotes them to rediscover in literary canons many contents ignored in the past. More importantly, it is t

50、he movement that changes the unique male perspective of viewing the world in the mandominated society. From then on, womens voice would not be neglected. Feminist literary criticism fins its impetus in the movement and has become an influential tend in literary critical circle.In 1919, the British s

51、cholar, teacher and early feminist Virginia Woolf laid the foundation for feminist criticism in her A Room of Ones Own, in which she declares that men have treated women, and continue to treat them, as inferiors. It is the male, she asserts, who defines what it means to be female and who control the

52、 political, economic, social and literary structure. As a designer of feminist literary criticism, Woolf first introduces her feminist thoughts into literary criticism. Thus, feminist issue has become an important critical dimension from then on. Whats more, she advocates that women writers should c

53、hange present expressive patterns and create new mode to express their ideas, so that they would not be misunderstood and distorted by readers. In literary criticism, by adopting non-traditional theoretical style and expressive patterns, she has successfully written a lot of critical works in a form

54、 of storytelling. Such breakthrough in language represents Woolf rebel against patriarchal language system and paves the way for later feminist criticism. The publication of the French writer Simone de Beauvoirs The Second Sex marks a new surge of feminist criticism. Heralded as the foundational wor

55、k of twentieth century feminism, Beauvoirs text declares that both French and Western societies are patriarchal, that is, female are controlled by males. She believes that “one is not born, but rather becomes a women, it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature.” (Beauvior,1952). The t

56、ask of feminist critics is to examine the female image in the male writers literary work and uncover how they reflect and shape the attitudes that have restricted women. At this stage, many feminist critics begin to revisit books by male authors and review them from a womans point of view. But, when

57、 they try to define what the womens identity is, feminist critics become confused. Feminist criticism seems to fall into a trap set by the patriarchal society which it tries to subvert. Therefore, some critical return to the forgotten and neglected text to get new impetus for the development of femi

58、nist critical theories.Elaine Showalter creates the term “gynocritics” in her A Literature of Their Own, to describe such analyses of which main attention should be focused on women writers and women characters to develop theories and methods based on female experiences and seek to recuperate female

59、 identity. She argues for a “program of gynocritics which constructs a female framework for the analysis of womens literature and develops a new models based on the study of female experience-on the newly visible world of female culture.”(1979) that is to say, the purposes of gynocritics are to redi

60、scover womens history and culture by studying women authors and forge an alternative literary tradition, a canon that better represents the female perspective.However, the focuses on the study of women and women writers do not help feminist critics to solve all problems that they are confronted with

61、. Meanwhile, feminist critics feel that they should not confine their visions to selfdiscovery, a search for identity. Many feminist critics embrace the learning imparted by traditional humanism that we all share basic universal values, though womens and mens experience of the world may be different

62、, that we have a common view of experience, in short, that we share an unquestioned “common sense”. A search for androgynous implications becomes one of the main tasks for contemporary feminist critics. They emphasize the differences of two genders but do not ignore common essence as human being. No

63、w, feminist criticism marks out a broad area of literary studies, eclectic, original and provocative. No matter what they emphasize in theory, however, all feminist critics assert that they are on journey of selfdiscovery that leads them to a better understanding of themselves. And once they have un

64、derstood and know how to define themselves women, they believe will able to change the world.Whatever theory and method criticism we choose to apply to a text, we can begin textual analysis by asking some general questions: Is the author male or female? What type of roles do women have in text? Are the female characters the protagonists or secondary characters? What are the attitudes toward women? How does the authors culture influence her or his attitude? My thesis will follow some feminist critical theories and approaches to reinterpret the main female character, Edna in