“绝望的妻子们”—试析凯特·肖邦作品中的妻子形象
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摘要
凯特·肖邦（1851-1904）是19世纪美国最重要的女作家之一。她一生中创作了两部长篇小说和三部短篇小说集。她的作品多刻画妇女和探讨妇女问题，小说《觉醒》被誉为19世纪女性主义的顶峰之作，其短篇小说也充分展示了她作为早期女性主义作家的思想锋芒。本论文通过对肖邦作品中众多妻子形象的分析，揭示肖邦对19世纪美国社会女性在婚姻和家庭生活中生存处境的思考和审视。
本论文分为五章。第一章引言部分简要介绍了肖邦的生平及其作品，并阐明论文写作目的及主要内容。第二章着重分析肖邦作品《觉醒》中的阿黛尔·拉蒂格诺尔夫人和《圣牛轭湖的一位女士》中的蒂莉斯勒夫人，作为父权制下的天使们，这些妻子们恪守父权制的标准，并一生为他人而活，无怨无悔。第三章主要分析肖邦作品的几位反抗妻子，此类女性形象包括《雅典娜》中的雅典娜、《一双长筒丝袜》中的萨默斯太太以及《一个小时的故事》中的马拉德夫人，她们都不满自己的生存现状，都从不同角度对父权制提出反抗。但是碍于父权制的影响，她们的反抗一律都是短暂的怯生生的尝试，最终她们都无一例外地回到了她们之前的角色当中。第四章分析肖邦笔下的自杀式的妻子形象。《觉醒》中的女主人公艾德娜和《黛西蕾的婴儿》中的黛西蕾则属于这类妻子。这些女性追求自我，但这种追求却为那个社会和时代所不容，因此，她们最终都走上了死亡的道路。最后一章为结论，总结上述三类妻子形象的特征及产生缘由，笔者认为她们的共同点是生活在有限的自由当中，其悲剧命运一来折射出了十九世纪美国社会中妇女的生活现状，二来也反映出肖邦对于旧有的女性价值观念的质疑。肖邦对这三类妻子形象的不同态度，也反映出她对这些妻子形象经历了一个从认同到质疑的转变。这些妇女的悲剧命运警示着世人当时女性悲凉的生存状况，同时也透露出肖邦对于解决妇女问题的无奈。
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) is one of the most important women writers in19thcenturyAmerican literature. In her lifetime, she created two novels and three short storycollections, in which she portrayed women and reflected on the issue of women. Her novelThe Awakening is viewed as the “best feminist work of the19thcentury”. Her short storiescomplement her novels by offering a strikingly feminist perspective on the lives ofAmerican women of that time. This thesis analyzes the wife figures in Chopin’s fictions,and in so doing reveals Chopin’s thinking on women’s living conditions as experienced inmarriage and family in19thcentury America.
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces Chopin and herliterary career, and demonstrates the purpose and the layout of the thesis. Chapter Twotakes a look at two wife figures, namely Adéle Ratignole in The Awakening and MadameDelisle in “A Lady in St. Bayou”. These epitomize the patriarchal angels who abide bypatriarchal standards, and live for the people around them without complaints. ChapterThree discusses Chopin’s second type of wives: the temporary rebels. The heroine of thestory “Athénaise”, the mother of three children in the story “A Pair of Silk Stockings” Mrs.Sommers and the newly wedded wife in “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard fall into thistype of female images. These wives are more rebellious; they are dissatisfied with theirstatus-quo, and tried to fight against the presumed roles set up for them by the society. Butthe hindrance is too strong for them to break through. And they finally fall back to their oldroles. Chapter Four examines the suicidal wives in Chopin’s works. The new motherDésirée in “Désirée’s Baby” and Edna in The Awakening belong to this category. Theypursue freedom and selfhood, but the society would never allow women to do so. So theyfinally decide to fight back through self-annihilation. Chapter Five is the conclusion inwhich I discus some of the reasons for Chopin’s interest of the depiction of various typesof desperate wives. It is argued that these wives live with limited freedom. Chopin’sdifferent treatment of these wives points to her dissatisfaction with the old wifedom, andmarks a change in Chopin’s attitude toward these wives. The tragic lives of many of thesewomen warn people of the women’s bleak living conditions and clearly stand as an embodiment of Chopin’s helplessness in finding a solution to woman’s question.
本论文分为五章。第一章引言部分简要介绍了肖邦的生平及其作品，并阐明论文写作目的及主要内容。第二章着重分析肖邦作品《觉醒》中的阿黛尔·拉蒂格诺尔夫人和《圣牛轭湖的一位女士》中的蒂莉斯勒夫人，作为父权制下的天使们，这些妻子们恪守父权制的标准，并一生为他人而活，无怨无悔。第三章主要分析肖邦作品的几位反抗妻子，此类女性形象包括《雅典娜》中的雅典娜、《一双长筒丝袜》中的萨默斯太太以及《一个小时的故事》中的马拉德夫人，她们都不满自己的生存现状，都从不同角度对父权制提出反抗。但是碍于父权制的影响，她们的反抗一律都是短暂的怯生生的尝试，最终她们都无一例外地回到了她们之前的角色当中。第四章分析肖邦笔下的自杀式的妻子形象。《觉醒》中的女主人公艾德娜和《黛西蕾的婴儿》中的黛西蕾则属于这类妻子。这些女性追求自我，但这种追求却为那个社会和时代所不容，因此，她们最终都走上了死亡的道路。最后一章为结论，总结上述三类妻子形象的特征及产生缘由，笔者认为她们的共同点是生活在有限的自由当中，其悲剧命运一来折射出了十九世纪美国社会中妇女的生活现状，二来也反映出肖邦对于旧有的女性价值观念的质疑。肖邦对这三类妻子形象的不同态度，也反映出她对这些妻子形象经历了一个从认同到质疑的转变。这些妇女的悲剧命运警示着世人当时女性悲凉的生存状况，同时也透露出肖邦对于解决妇女问题的无奈。
Kate Chopin (1851-1904) is one of the most important women writers in19thcenturyAmerican literature. In her lifetime, she created two novels and three short storycollections, in which she portrayed women and reflected on the issue of women. Her novelThe Awakening is viewed as the “best feminist work of the19thcentury”. Her short storiescomplement her novels by offering a strikingly feminist perspective on the lives ofAmerican women of that time. This thesis analyzes the wife figures in Chopin’s fictions,and in so doing reveals Chopin’s thinking on women’s living conditions as experienced inmarriage and family in19thcentury America.
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces Chopin and herliterary career, and demonstrates the purpose and the layout of the thesis. Chapter Twotakes a look at two wife figures, namely Adéle Ratignole in The Awakening and MadameDelisle in “A Lady in St. Bayou”. These epitomize the patriarchal angels who abide bypatriarchal standards, and live for the people around them without complaints. ChapterThree discusses Chopin’s second type of wives: the temporary rebels. The heroine of thestory “Athénaise”, the mother of three children in the story “A Pair of Silk Stockings” Mrs.Sommers and the newly wedded wife in “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard fall into thistype of female images. These wives are more rebellious; they are dissatisfied with theirstatus-quo, and tried to fight against the presumed roles set up for them by the society. Butthe hindrance is too strong for them to break through. And they finally fall back to their oldroles. Chapter Four examines the suicidal wives in Chopin’s works. The new motherDésirée in “Désirée’s Baby” and Edna in The Awakening belong to this category. Theypursue freedom and selfhood, but the society would never allow women to do so. So theyfinally decide to fight back through self-annihilation. Chapter Five is the conclusion inwhich I discus some of the reasons for Chopin’s interest of the depiction of various typesof desperate wives. It is argued that these wives live with limited freedom. Chopin’sdifferent treatment of these wives points to her dissatisfaction with the old wifedom, andmarks a change in Chopin’s attitude toward these wives. The tragic lives of many of thesewomen warn people of the women’s bleak living conditions and clearly stand as an embodiment of Chopin’s helplessness in finding a solution to woman’s question.
引文
Acocella, Joan. Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism. Lincoln&London:University of Nebraska Press,2000.
Arner, Robert.“Kate Chopin.” Louisiana Studies14.1(1975):111-139.
Bardot, Jean.“French Creole Portraits: The Chopin Family from Natchitoches Parish.”Perspectives on Kate Chopin: Proceedings from the Kate Chopin InternationalConference, April6,7,8,1989. Eds. Grady Ballenger, et al. Northwestern StateUniversity: Natchitoches,1992.
Bloom, Harold. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. New York: Infobase Publishing,2008.
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1983.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction. Edited by Rachel Adams, NewYork: Barnes&Noble Classics,2003.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Other Stories. Edited by Lewis Leary, New York: Holt,Rinehart and Winston,1970.
Culley, Margaret. Ed. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Context, Criticism. NewYork: Norton,1976.
Dyer, Joyee.“The Awakening”: A Novel of Beginnings. New York: Publishers,1993.
Eble, Kenneth.“A Forgotten Novel.” Western Humanities Review, No.3(Summer).1956:8-9.
Firestone, Shulamith. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York:Bantam,1971.
Friedan, Betty.“From The Feminine Mystique.” Feminist Theory: A Reader. Eds. WendyKolmar and France Bartkowski. London: Mayfield,2000:97-99.
Frye, Katie Berry.“Edna Pontellier, Adèle Ratignolle, and the Unnamed Nurse: ATriptych of Maternity in The Awakening.” Southern Studies13.3-4(2006):45-66.
Gorsky, Susan R. Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the NineteenthCentury. New York: Twayne Publishers.1992
Green, Suzanne D.“Fear, Freedom and the Perils of Ethnicity: Otherness in KateChopin's ‘Beyond the Bayou’ and Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Sweat’.” Southern Studies5.3-4(1994):105-24.
Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch, UK: Harper Perennial,2006.
Guidici, Cynthia.“Kate Chopin's ‘Occasional’ Women.” Conference of College Teachersof English Studies56(1991):25-34.
Heuston, Sean.“Chopin's The Awakening.” Explicator64.4(2006):220-23.
Jones, Paul Christian.“A Re-Awakening: Anne Tyler's Postfeminist Edna Pontellier inLadder of Years.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction44.3(2003):271-83.
Koloski, Bernard J.,ed. Approaches to Teaching Chopin’s The Awakening. New York:Modern Language Association,1988.
Ma, Qian.“Dream or Reality?-The Awakening as Utopia.” Southern Studies8.1-2(1997):9-18.
Martin, Wendy. Ed. New Essays on “The Awakening”. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press,1988.
Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and EdithWharton. Michigan University: Greenwood Press,1990.
Parvulescu, Anca.“To Die Laughing and to Laugh at Dying: Revisiting The Awakening.”New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation36.3(2005):477-95.
Peel, Ellen.“Semiotic Subversion in ‘Désirée’s Baby’”. American Literature62.2(1990):210-223.
Petry, Alice Hall, ed. Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. New York: Hall,1996.
Rocks, James E.“Kate Chopin's Ironic Vision.” Revue de Louisiane/Louisiana Reviewl.2(1972):110-122.
Ryan, Steven T.“Depression and Chopin's The Awakening.” Mississippi Quarterly: TheJournal of Southern Cultures51.2(1998):253-73.
Showalter, Elaine.“The Awakening: Tradition and the American Female Talent”. Sister’sChoice: Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing. New York: OxfordClarendon.1991:65-84.
Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne Publishers,1985.
Stein, Allen F. Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction. New York: PeterLang,2005.
Sullivan, Ruth, and Smith, Stewart.“Narrative Stance in Kate Chopin's The Awakening.”Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. Ed. Alice Hall Petry. London: Prentice-HallInternational,1996.147-58.
Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,1999.
Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. A Life of the Author of The Awakening. New York: WiiliamMorrow&Company，Inc,1990.
Toth, Emily.“Kate Chopin ‘The Story of an Hour’: Questions and answers about ‘TheStory of an Hour.’http://www.katechopin.org. Kate Chopin International Society,March, April2012. Web.5May.2012.
Wade, Carol A.“Conformity, Resistance, and the Search for Selfhood in Kate Chopin'sThe Awakening.” Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South37.2(1999):92-104.
Walker, Nancy A.“A Critical History of The Awakening.” Kate Chopin: The Awakening.Ed. Nancy A. Walker. New York: St. Martin’s:1993.
Welter, Barbara.“The Cult of True Womanhood.” American Quarterly18(1966):151-174.
Wilson，Edmund. Patriotic Gore. New York: Oxford University Press,1962.
Woolf, Virginia. Women and Writing. New York: A Harvest Book,1980.
Rankin, Daniel. Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press,1932.
Shaffter, L. Marry.“Creole Women” The Chautauqua, VX (June1892):346-347.
Spender, Dale. Weddings and Wives. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books,1994.
Sarah M. Corse,“Gender and Literary Valorization: The Awakening of a CanonicalNovel”, Sociological Perspectives,45(2002):139-161.
Tillett, Wilbur Fisk.“Southern Womanhood as Affected by the Civil War,” The CenturyMagazine,1891:5-16.
Yan Qigang. Feminist Literary Criticism and Female Writers in Canada and China [M].China Social Sciences Publishing House,1999:22
包亚明.《后现代性与地理学的政治》[M].上海：上海教育出版社，2001.
E.M福斯特.《小说面面观》，朱乃长译，中国对外翻译出版社，2002.
格非.《小说叙事研究》[M].北京：清华大学出版社，2002.
金莉.《文学女性与女性文学：19世纪美国女性小说家及作品》[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2003.
罗婷.《女性主义文学批评在西方与中国》[M].北京：中国社会科学出版社，2004.
W C布斯.《小说修辞学》.华明等译，北京：北京大学出版社，1987.
严泽胜：“镜像阶段”.《国外理论动态》，2006第二期.
祖国颂.《叙事的诗学》[M].合肥：安徽大学出版社，2003.
朱刚.《新编美国文学史》[M].上海：外语教育出版社，2002.
Arner, Robert.“Kate Chopin.” Louisiana Studies14.1(1975):111-139.
Bardot, Jean.“French Creole Portraits: The Chopin Family from Natchitoches Parish.”Perspectives on Kate Chopin: Proceedings from the Kate Chopin InternationalConference, April6,7,8,1989. Eds. Grady Ballenger, et al. Northwestern StateUniversity: Natchitoches,1992.
Bloom, Harold. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. New York: Infobase Publishing,2008.
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1983.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction. Edited by Rachel Adams, NewYork: Barnes&Noble Classics,2003.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening and Other Stories. Edited by Lewis Leary, New York: Holt,Rinehart and Winston,1970.
Culley, Margaret. Ed. The Awakening: An Authoritative Text, Context, Criticism. NewYork: Norton,1976.
Dyer, Joyee.“The Awakening”: A Novel of Beginnings. New York: Publishers,1993.
Eble, Kenneth.“A Forgotten Novel.” Western Humanities Review, No.3(Summer).1956:8-9.
Firestone, Shulamith. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York:Bantam,1971.
Friedan, Betty.“From The Feminine Mystique.” Feminist Theory: A Reader. Eds. WendyKolmar and France Bartkowski. London: Mayfield,2000:97-99.
Frye, Katie Berry.“Edna Pontellier, Adèle Ratignolle, and the Unnamed Nurse: ATriptych of Maternity in The Awakening.” Southern Studies13.3-4(2006):45-66.
Gorsky, Susan R. Feminity to Feminism: Women and Literature in the NineteenthCentury. New York: Twayne Publishers.1992
Green, Suzanne D.“Fear, Freedom and the Perils of Ethnicity: Otherness in KateChopin's ‘Beyond the Bayou’ and Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Sweat’.” Southern Studies5.3-4(1994):105-24.
Greer, Germaine. The Female Eunuch, UK: Harper Perennial,2006.
Guidici, Cynthia.“Kate Chopin's ‘Occasional’ Women.” Conference of College Teachersof English Studies56(1991):25-34.
Heuston, Sean.“Chopin's The Awakening.” Explicator64.4(2006):220-23.
Jones, Paul Christian.“A Re-Awakening: Anne Tyler's Postfeminist Edna Pontellier inLadder of Years.” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction44.3(2003):271-83.
Koloski, Bernard J.,ed. Approaches to Teaching Chopin’s The Awakening. New York:Modern Language Association,1988.
Ma, Qian.“Dream or Reality?-The Awakening as Utopia.” Southern Studies8.1-2(1997):9-18.
Martin, Wendy. Ed. New Essays on “The Awakening”. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press,1988.
Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and EdithWharton. Michigan University: Greenwood Press,1990.
Parvulescu, Anca.“To Die Laughing and to Laugh at Dying: Revisiting The Awakening.”New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation36.3(2005):477-95.
Peel, Ellen.“Semiotic Subversion in ‘Désirée’s Baby’”. American Literature62.2(1990):210-223.
Petry, Alice Hall, ed. Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. New York: Hall,1996.
Rocks, James E.“Kate Chopin's Ironic Vision.” Revue de Louisiane/Louisiana Reviewl.2(1972):110-122.
Ryan, Steven T.“Depression and Chopin's The Awakening.” Mississippi Quarterly: TheJournal of Southern Cultures51.2(1998):253-73.
Showalter, Elaine.“The Awakening: Tradition and the American Female Talent”. Sister’sChoice: Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing. New York: OxfordClarendon.1991:65-84.
Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne Publishers,1985.
Stein, Allen F. Women and Autonomy in Kate Chopin’s Short Fiction. New York: PeterLang,2005.
Sullivan, Ruth, and Smith, Stewart.“Narrative Stance in Kate Chopin's The Awakening.”Critical Essays on Kate Chopin. Ed. Alice Hall Petry. London: Prentice-HallInternational,1996.147-58.
Toth, Emily. Unveiling Kate Chopin. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,1999.
Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. A Life of the Author of The Awakening. New York: WiiliamMorrow&Company，Inc,1990.
Toth, Emily.“Kate Chopin ‘The Story of an Hour’: Questions and answers about ‘TheStory of an Hour.’http://www.katechopin.org. Kate Chopin International Society,March, April2012. Web.5May.2012.
Wade, Carol A.“Conformity, Resistance, and the Search for Selfhood in Kate Chopin'sThe Awakening.” Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South37.2(1999):92-104.
Walker, Nancy A.“A Critical History of The Awakening.” Kate Chopin: The Awakening.Ed. Nancy A. Walker. New York: St. Martin’s:1993.
Welter, Barbara.“The Cult of True Womanhood.” American Quarterly18(1966):151-174.
Wilson，Edmund. Patriotic Gore. New York: Oxford University Press,1962.
Woolf, Virginia. Women and Writing. New York: A Harvest Book,1980.
Rankin, Daniel. Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press,1932.
Shaffter, L. Marry.“Creole Women” The Chautauqua, VX (June1892):346-347.
Spender, Dale. Weddings and Wives. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books,1994.
Sarah M. Corse,“Gender and Literary Valorization: The Awakening of a CanonicalNovel”, Sociological Perspectives,45(2002):139-161.
Tillett, Wilbur Fisk.“Southern Womanhood as Affected by the Civil War,” The CenturyMagazine,1891:5-16.
Yan Qigang. Feminist Literary Criticism and Female Writers in Canada and China [M].China Social Sciences Publishing House,1999:22
包亚明.《后现代性与地理学的政治》[M].上海：上海教育出版社，2001.
E.M福斯特.《小说面面观》，朱乃长译，中国对外翻译出版社，2002.
格非.《小说叙事研究》[M].北京：清华大学出版社，2002.
金莉.《文学女性与女性文学：19世纪美国女性小说家及作品》[M].北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2003.
罗婷.《女性主义文学批评在西方与中国》[M].北京：中国社会科学出版社，2004.
W C布斯.《小说修辞学》.华明等译，北京：北京大学出版社，1987.
严泽胜：“镜像阶段”.《国外理论动态》，2006第二期.
祖国颂.《叙事的诗学》[M].合肥：安徽大学出版社，2003.
朱刚.《新编美国文学史》[M].上海：外语教育出版社，2002.