英语本科毕业论文（设计）-通过电影《黑天鹅》探讨当代成功职业女性所面临的问题.doc

密级： nanchang university 学 士 学 位 论 文 thesis of bachelor（20072011年）题 目：the struggles of successful working women in black swan 学 院： 外国语学院 系： 英语语言文学 专 业： 英 语 班 级： 2007级5班 学 号： 学生姓名： 指导教师： 起讫日期： 2011年2月2011年6月 iii通过电影黑天鹅探讨当代成功职业女性所面临的问题专业：英语 学号：5101107162 学生姓名：黄晓梅 指导老师：于红冈摘 要当今社会，能同时做到家庭幸福和事业成功的女性几乎是凤毛麟角。不管是在经历了几千年封建思想影响的中国，抑或是在高度发达的资本主义国家美国，这都是不争的事实。职业女性，指的是那些凭借工作取得自身经济独立，但同时又在家里扮演着妻子、女儿或者母亲等多重角色的妇女。正是这些她们扮演的多种角色增加了她们成为成功职业女性的难度。在工作中，她们得承受和男性同事一样的工作压力，回到家里，她们也不能摒弃作为女人该扮演的角色。并且，社会环境的多变性，也使得职业女性面临着更多纷繁复杂的问题。探讨当代成功职业女性所面临的典型问题正是这篇文章的研究目的，希望这篇文章中挖掘出来的问题能引起即将走向职场的大学女生注意，进而能在真正走向社会前做好充分的准备，以免遇到这些问题时手忙脚乱。受2010年奥斯卡最佳女主角电影黑天鹅的启发，本文旨在探讨当代成功职业女性所面临的一些典型问题。影片中的芭蕾舞演员nina，为了演好黑白两种性格截然相反的天鹅，本身纯洁无暇的她不得不努力挖掘出自己的阴暗面，并逐渐出现了精神幻觉。最终她攀登到了事业的巅峰，却付出了生命的代价。她在影片中所面临的种种问题，是现实中职业女性所面临着的种种问题的一个缩影。这些问题包括：第一，职业女性与家庭之间那种既相互束缚又互相扶持关系的问题，比如怎样承载父母的期望与承受父母施加的压力，以及怎样凭借父母与子女之间相互包容以化解种种家庭矛盾的问题；第二是职场中的女性对男性同事又爱又恨的复杂问题，比如说怎样与男性同事合作以及面对职场中的性骚扰问题；第三是处理与女性同性同事之间那种亦敌亦友的微妙关系问题，比如怎样处理职场上“适者生存”与“优胜劣汰”的问题，以及怎样建立恰当的“同事友谊”的问题；最后就是职业女性在通往事业成功道路上，不断克服自身存在的各种矛盾，不断超越自己，以追求完美境界的问题。针对这篇文章中概括出的典型问题，本文还借鉴一些社会学家的成果，提出了几个可行性意见，希望可以对那些即将走向职场的女大学生有所帮助，尽量避免这些问题带来的负面影响。关键词：黑天鹅；职业女性；问题；the problems of successful working women in black swanabstractin contemporary society, only very few women hold a happy family and a successful career at the same time. it is true no matter in china, who has been influenced by the feudal thoughts for thousands of years, or in america, who is a leading capitalistic country in the world. occupational women, is a technical term refers to these women who gain economic independence through working, but they still have to play the roles of wife, daughter, and mother. the multiply roles these women playing increase the difficulty of being a successful occupational women. they not only endure equal pressure as men in the workplace, after going back home , they have to play the roles of a woman.,such as how to be a good daughter,a sincere wife and a great mother. besides, with the changebility of social environment, the problems that occupational women facing to are becoming more and more diversified and complex. digging out the prblomes that occupational women really have in modern world and bringing up their enough attation for the coming working life afoot are the research purposes of this thesis. enlightened by the oscar best actress movie black swan in 2010, this thesis aims at discussing the typical problems that occupational women facing with in reality. the heroine in the movie, named nina, is a pure and innocent ballerina, in order to play the evil black swan, she needs to dig out her dark side, but she gradually emerges the signs of hallucination. she finally climbs to the top position of her career, but at the cost of her life. the problems faced in the movie are the refractions that occupational women facing in the real world. these problems can be summarized as four types: first is how to deal with the tightened and supportive family ties, which consists of shouldering expectations and pressures from parents, plus dealing with family conflicts; second is about how to handle the love and hatred relationship with male colleagues, such as how to cooperate with them and how to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace; third is concerned with the relationship with the female colleagues, such as how to look at replacement in a proper way, how to make a distinction between friends and rivals among female colleagues; the last struggle is on transcending oneself in order to be a perfect occupational woman, both at home and in the workplace. base on some researchers ideas, this thesis also brings out some possible solutions to minimize the negative influence of these struggles, hoping these graduating ladies will make a good preparation for their career life afoot. key words: black swan, occupational women, struggles.iiicontents 摘 要iabstractiichapter 1 introduction11.1 the brief plot of black swan.11.2 critical reviews on this movie21.3 significance of this research3chapter2 the struggles of successful working women in the movie42.1 tightened and supportive family ties42.1.1 expectations and pressures from parents52.1.2 conflicts and tolerance at home52.2 the love and hatred relationship with male colleagues62.3 the struggles with the female colleagues.72.3.1 replacement in the workplace.72.3.2 friends and rivals among female colleagues.82.4 the struggles of overcoming contradictions within herself92.4.1 shackle vs. freedom92.4.2 incomplete vs. perfection10chapter 3 possible solutions of these problems113.1 balancing parental expectations and personal interests113.2 facing up to competition and friendship in the workplace123.3 dealing with social anxiety14chapter 4 conclusion15references16acknowledgements17ivchapter 1 introduction what is the function and purpose that a movie serves to the larger society? put aside the chronicle function of history, movie is also an important messenger of social values and norms. it is a reflection of the real world. movie is a valuable contribution to humanity because it is revealing about humanity. it tells us something about who we are as human beings; why were here; to give us an understanding of what it means to live; what is the nature of society; the type of universal and eternal problems and challenges people have to deal with over time. movie will bring us some enlightenment to our life, thats the charm of movies.this thesis is also influenced by the charm of a movie named black swan, which is the oscar best female lead movie in 2010, aims at discussing the typical problems that occupational women facing with in reality. the heroine in the movie is beautiful, vulnerable, sexually naive and susceptible to mental illness. to play the role of a lifetime, she must develop her own dark side, at the same time, she has to endure some struggles, such as the bounded and supportive relationship with her mother；the love and hate dilemma with the other sex; the friendliness and rival relationship with the female colleagues, and whats more difficultly, keep transcending herself in order to be successful. these problems and challenges mirror the same situation faced by occupational women in the real world. therefore, this movie arouses our serious contemplation of the difficulties to be a successful occupational woman.1.1 the brief plot of black swan. nina sayers is a young dancer in a prestigious new york city ballet company. she lives with her overbearing mother, erica, a failed dancer turned amateur artist who tries to control everything about her daughters life. the ballet company is preparing for a new production of swan lake. the director, thomas leroy, has to cast a new swan queen. the lead must be able to portray both the innocent, fragile white swan and her dark, sensual, evil twin, the black swan. nina, as a chaste, vulnerable, sexually naive girl gets this opportunity by showing her potential to play the evil black swan.however, the way to dig out the dark side from a chaste and obedient girl is filled with struggles. the first thing nina does is to get out the control of her mother, who has made decisions for her more than twenty years, she gradually starts to says “no” to her mother. the second thing she has to do is to become seductive. in order to realize this, she even challenges her inhibitions to take drugs, the result is she becomes sexually interested in not only the men at the bar and thomas leroy, she even has sexual fancy to her female colleaguelily. the third struggle is to handle the reality and her hallucinations. as she goes further and further to a sweet daughter, nina suffers strong psychotic symptoms, including strong delusions and elaborate visual hallucinations. she usually has the delusion to see the dark side self in the mirror. actually, this is the reflection of her inner struggle between innocent and evil.in the rehearsal night, nina and her duplicate wrestle in the interval of the performance. she shoves her duplicate into the mirror, and stabs a shard of glass into the stomach of her duplicate. her evil side totally takes place of her innocent spirit. filling with this evil spirit, ninas seductive and evil black swan performance receives great applause. when she goes back to her dressing room to prepare the last chapter, she wakes up from her hallucinations, only to find it is herself who has been stabbed in the state of paranoid delusion. back to the stage, nina dances passionately and seamlessly as the white swan. at the last moments of the ballet, when the white swan throws herself off a cliff, she spots her mother weeping in the audience. the theater erupts in thunderous applause as nina falls. as thomas and the rest of the cast enthusiastically congratulate her on her performance, lily gasps in horror to see that nina is bleeding. though nina lies wounded and perhaps dying, she is contented and satisfied with her performance. the movie closes with nina staring up at the stage lights while whispering i felt it - perfect - it was perfect,” as the screen fades to white and the audience chants her name. its a moving movie, showing us how a working woman sacrifices her life in the pursuit of the success.1.2 critical reviews on this moviethe end of the movie is the beginning of audiences discussion. for the significance of black swan, different people have different perspectives. a famous movie reviewer, named linda lowen, writes in her review black swans movie review womens power, relationships at heart of black swan:“movie explores mother daughter relationships, friendship, womens duality” to call darren aronofskys black swan a chick flick might be a misnomer; but it confronts nearly every significant issue facing girls and women today in a way that few mainstream movies dare the movies trailer makes no bones about the fact that nina goes mad as she immerses herself in the role of a lifetime. its a dark gothic tale of suppression, betrayal, desire, guilt and achievement. but at some level it also addresses how we women fear our own power and abilities, believing that if we fully exercise both, we risk obliterating and destroying those around us - including ourselves.”linda lowen points out that this movie confronts typical issue facing girls and women today, similar with the purpose of this thesis, which tries to reveal the specific problems that occupational women facing with in reality.some reviewers see the difficulties of successful working women outside of the movie. as motioned above, movie is a reflection of the real world, which is the charm of movie. these reviewers unveil the leading actress portmans struggles to play this role. many people classified this movie as an artistic movie, because half of the scenes consists of ballet performance. the problem is, portman is just an actress, its a great challenge to her to perform as a professional ballerina. therefore, the preparation for this movie is a long and tough way for this young woman.portman starts training six months before the start of movieing. in order to attain a body shape and muscle tone more similar to those of professional dancers, portman worked out for five hours a day, doing ballet, cross-training, and swimming. a few months closer to movieing, she begins choreography training. training even days a week, five hours, for five, six months total, and . was put on a very strict diet of 1,200 calories a day. portman tells the media after won the best actress of oscar 2010. she lost 20 pounds from her normal weight of about 117 poundsin the movie, ninas great effort to play the swan twins is deeply rooted in surprised us, in real world, portmans devotion to her act career arises our admirations. portman sets a lively presentation to us that what the struggles and difficulties an occupational women has to go through in reality. this review expresses the purpose of this thesis and the functions of movie 3at the same time. movie not only brings us great visual enjoyment, but also arises our contemplations to our real life. thats the reason why black swan has the significant function to this paper.1.3 significance of this researchas mentioned in the introduction, the purpose of this paper is try to find out the problems and struggles that working women are holding through the movie black swan. as an undergraduate female student who will leave school to work a couple of moths later, we should know more about the typical circumstance we will face in the work. even though women have the freedom to choose what kind of work they take, and women have also received increasing employment rights, the multiply roles they actually act make their occupational path filled with obstacles, especially in a more and more fierce competitive society. these occupational women not only have to endure the same pressure as men in the workplace, but also have to play different kinds of roles after working. the woman in the movie is a mirror of occupational women in the real world, what she experienced is also torturing the occupational women in reality. the truth is, working women in the real world have to suffer much more if they want to succeed in their careers. whats the real struggle these occupational women have to go through? maybe this research paper will find some answers to this question and bring some significant results for the graduating ladies, at least rise their enough attention to take good preparation for their occupational life afoot. chapter2 the struggles of successful working women in the moviethe road to the successful career in the movie is not easy, which is filled with different kinds of struggles that an occupational women have to go through. the same is true in the real world.2.1 tightened and supportive family ties family always acts as an important role for a womans success, sometimes the love between parents and daughter can help a person overcome obstacles, however, if this love is distorted as an unconquered parental authority, things may go upside down.2.1.1 expectations and pressures from parents in the movie, ninas is a nearly grown woman in her 20s, she still lives in a room full of dolls and lace, with a tight-lippedmother. ninas mother hovers obsessively over her, watching everything from her diet to nervous habits, like scratching her skin until it bleeds. this mother and daughter have been living together for the past years, from their dullness life and homely decoration of family facilities, we can see their life is not easy. however, they have a affection to each other and to the ballet career. actually, ninas mother abandoned her own stagnant ballet career on being impregnated, and channeled her rage and disappointment into coaching the resulting daughter, in other words, she put her unrealized dream on her daughter, hoping her daughter could become an excellent ballerina one day. nina is shouldering her mothers career expectations.this mothers expectations drive her daughters life in a dilemma. for one side, nina is well protected by her mother; her mother undertakes the whole thing in the family, so that nina has a good environment to concentrate on her dancing. things will go much easier in the real world, if a working woman has someone to help with her housework or baby caring, she will have a relative easy burden on her shoulder. research has demonstrated that parents who believe that they can positively impact their childs career are more involved in their childs career, these parents would spend more time volunteering in the classroom and on educational activities with their children at home (hoover-dempsey, bassler, & brissie, 1992). parents of girls have reported significantly higher expectations regarding carrer attainment, as compared to parents of boys (gill & reynolds, 1999; hossler & stage, 1992; raty, 2006). this could explain why ninas mother would like to enhance all the things of her daughter.6 however, for another thing, this mothers expectation also put great pressure to her daughter. early research examining the impact of parental expectations posited that parents who have high expectations for their children set high standards and make high demands of their children beginning at an early age; these high standards and demands in turn result in high career achievement (boocock, 1997). in the movie, this mother gave up her own ballet career to cultivate her daughter, she accompanied her daughter to the ballet class since an early age, for her understanding, her daughter is her personal subordination and she has the right to decide every thing on her daughter. she sees her daughter as a living corpse, without her own thoughts and personal requests. it seems that nina also has the responsibility to continue her mothers unrealized dreams. however, in the request of the performance, nina has to develop her dark side, which is against her mothers will to be a “sweet daughter”, the great contradiction between mothers will and daughters action leads to family conflict and drives nina to psychological distress, finally, mental disorder. in applying lazarus and folkmans (1984) theory to the mechanism between parental expectations and psychological distress, parental expectations may be interpreted as a stress when children perceive parental expectations to be something that they cannot meet. thus, it may be either perception or fear that one is not able to meet the parental expectations t