Ideality and reality: Feminist utopias and the patriarchal world in eighteenth-century Chinese and English fiction.
详细信息
文摘
This study is a cross-cultural comparison of utopian ideas in Chinese and English fiction of the eighteenth century, focusing on Charlotte Lennox's Female Quixote, Sarah Scott's A Description of Millenium Hall, Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, Chen Duansheng's Predestination of Lovers Reborn, Cao Xueqin's A Dream of Red Mansions, and Li Ruzhen's Flowers in the Mirror. All of these texts can be subsumed in the category of feminist utopian literature, which provides imaginative alternatives for women to the patriarchal status quo.;The first chapter analyzes romance fiction, narratives that involve women's adventures: Female Quixote and Lovers Reborn. This chapter explores the affinity between the romantic tradition and early feminist thought and concludes that romance is a powerful tool used by early feminist writers to express ideas and ideals that were deemed improper or dangerous by their societies and times. Chapter two explores the feminist ideal embodied in female utopian societies: Grand View Garden in Red Mansions and Millenium Hall in Scott's novel. By isolating communities of women from the patriarchal world, both novels demonstrate the ability of women to live happily and productively in seclusion and offer the premise that celibacy is a major source of feminine strength and marriage a major source of destruction. In chapter three, which focuses on Lin Daiyu in Red Mansions and Clarissa in the novel that bears her name, the role and development of idealized women characters are analyzed. These characters provide alternative models to the conventional ideal of "good" women in both fictional narratives and actual life. Emphasis is laid on the heroine's "will," both literal and symbolic, which is seen as a sign of feminist awakening and a potential threat to patriarchal control. Using the text of Flowers in the Mirror, chapter four examines the contrast between fantasy and reality in feminist utopian fiction and shows that pre-modern feminist thought is composed primarily of illusions. Although the restrictions of patriarchal society promoted a tendency for early feminist writers to express social criticism obliquely in the form of utopias, these writers were true forerunners of contemporary feminism, and their works anticipated today's feminist concerns.