英语本科毕业论文-伍尔夫《一间自己的房子》中的女权主义思想.doc

本科毕业论文题 目：伍尔夫一间自己的房子中的女权主义思想学 院： 外 国 语 学 院专业班级： 英 语0 6 0 1班学 号： 2006344010117学生姓名： 指导教师姓名： 指导教师职称： 助教硕士二O一O 年 六 月 十五 日The Feminist Thoughts in WoolfsA Room of Ones ownA Graduation Thesis Submitted byGao WencuiIn Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsForThe Degree of Bachelor of ArtsIn the Subject of English Language and LiteratureSupervisor: Zhou SisiMay 20, 2010 Candidate： Supervisor： Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsi摘 要iiAbstractii1 Introduction12 The Causes of Woolfs Feminist Ideas12.1 The Cause of the Times22.2 The Cause of Family32.3 Bloomsbury Group43 The Manifestation of Woolfs Feminist Ideas53.1 The Establishment of Womens Mode of Discourse53.1.1 The First Person “I”63.1.2 Metaphor and Symbolism73.1.3 Fiction73.2 Androgyny Theory93.2.1 The Harmony between Two Genders93.2.2 The Unity of Two Genders103.2.3 Androgyny Writing104 The Influence of the Woolfs Feminist Thoughts114.1 The Influence in the World114.2 The Influence in China125 Conclusion12Bibliography14AcknowledgementsI could not have completed the project without a lot of help from other people, thereby I wish to express the deep gratitude with all my heart to the following people: Supervisor Zhou Sisi, my supervisor, offers me copious guidance and support. Her thoughtful comments and practical advice on the research design, and excellent understanding of linguistics have been invaluable for me. Her smiling patience with my blunders greatly encouraged me to complete this dissertation. Moreover, I am grateful to all the professors who presented their wonderful lectures from which I have benefited a lot. Special thanks should extend to my colleagues, without their help, the completion of the paper would be impossible.Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to all my classmates and friends, and my family members, for their support and encouragement. I am indebted to them for their help. Gao Wencui May 15, 2010【摘 要】弗吉尼亚伍尔夫不仅是英国伟大的小说家，而且是现代女性主义文学批评的重要先驱之一，她的作品从各个方面充满了对女性的关注。尤其是她对女性与艺术创作的关系的独特见解，成为后世评论家热烈讨论的话题。作为女性作家，伍尔夫努力倡导女性主义,于是1929年创作了体现她思想的一间自己的房间。这部作品堪称女权主义的宣言和女权主义文学批评的经典之作。文章探讨了父权制社会下女人的劣等地位，她认为，今天人们对女性的不公与偏见在逐渐消失，但鄙视妇女的想法仍然深植于男人心中。因此，她提出了一系列建构女性自己的写作传统、写作方式的方法：用女性自己的话语方式进行创作；共同构建”双性同体”理论等等。伍尔夫的女性主义思想具有丰富的内涵和启发性，她所表述的观念充分体现了女性主义思想在文化发展历史上的重要性，影响了当代世界以及中国许多女性主义作家、批评家，伍尔夫也因此成为西方女性主义的先驱。【关键词】弗吉尼亚伍尔夫;女权主义;女性话语方式;双性同体理论【Abstract】Virginia Woolf is not only a great novelist in England, but also one of the forerunners of modern feminist literary criticism. Her works are full of concerns for women. Her unique viewpoint of the relation between women and the artistic creation has become the hot topic of modern literary criticism.As a woman writer, Woolf made great effort to advocate feminism and therefore wrote A Room of Ones Own expressing her opinions in 1929. This work was called the declaration of feminism, and the classic works of feminist literary criticism. The passage discusses the inferior statues of women in patriarchal society. She thought that the inequality and discrimination against women is disappearing gradually nowadays, but men still hold tightly discrimination against women. Therefore, she raised a series of ways to constitute womens writing traditions and patterns, that is, women should use their own ways of speech to write, and that they should constitute jointly the theory of “androgyny”. Woolfs feminism has profound concepts and inspiration, and her ideas fully show the importance of feminism in the history of cultural development, influencing a large amount of contemporary feminist writers and critics in the world and China. As a result, Woolf has become the forerunner of western feminism.【Key Words】 Virginia Woolf, Feminism, Womens Mode of Discourse, Androgynyiii1 Introduction Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is not only an outstanding English novelist but also an important precursor of modern feminist literary criticism of the twentieth century. Her unique female consciousness runs through the whole literary works. She expresses her feelings with sharp style of writing in A Room of Ones Own (1929), Three Guineas (1938), and Orlando: A Biography (1928) and so on. These works embody her unique female consciousness and advanced feminist ideas. Therefore, she is regarded as the important precursor of modern feminist literary criticism, and the founding mother of the contemporary debate. The thesis is aimed to discuss the representation of Virginia Woolfs unique female consciousness in A Room of Ones Own. There are three important parts in the paper. First of all, the paper introduces the social background of the Woolfs feminist thoughts. They are social background, family background, and the Bloomsbury Group. Secondly, it emphasizes Virginia Woolfs unique female consciousness in A Room of Ones Own. It mainly reflects the womens mode of discourse and the androgyny theory. Constructing womens mode of discourse is a way to get rid of the limitations of mens thinking patterns and languages. And the androgyny is a perfect mental state for writers, especially for women writers. Women writers could use it to free from the bias of sex and achieve their fulfillments. Finally, it will introduce the influence of the Woolfs feminist thoughts in the world and China. In A Room of Ones Own, Woolf discusses the root causes of womens low social position, puts forward the writing with womens own discourse; and builds “Androgyny” theory. While Virginia Woolfs feminist consciousness has some limitations, but her awareness of women has a great historical significance, especially her “Androgyny” theory recognized by many critics. Woolf laid a solid foundation established for Western Feminist Literature Criticism and she is the pioneer of modern feminist literary criticism.2 The Causes of Woolfs Feminist IdeasVirginia Woolf (1882-1941) is the pioneer of worlds feminism, and writes many works during her life. His prose fiction and criticism all give forth a strong flavor of feminism, especially her feminist literary works A Room of Ones Own is regarded as the declaration of war to the male hegemony and the perfect embodiment of her feminist ideology. 要了解伍尔芙的女权主义思想，有必要追寻伍尔芙的成长足迹，研究她所生活的时代和环境，探索其女权主义思想产生的根源。To explore the root causes of Woolfs feminist thoughts is necessary to understand Woolfs feminism .To discuss the causes and research the times of her life and the environment is good for us to understand the whole system of feminist thoughts of Virginia Woolf and is also very important to further systematic study of Woolfs feminism.1.1.1 时代背景2.1 The Cause of the Times弗吉尼亚伍尔夫 , 生活在一个资本主义迅速发展、政治急剧变革、传统生活结构逐渐崩溃、妇女想走出家门、要求独立经济生活和精神生活的时代。Virginia Woolf lived in a time of rapid development of capitalism, political drastic change, the gradual breakdown of traditional structures of life, women want out of the house and demanding independence of economic life and spiritual life. In the context of such an era, as a very sensitive writer, Woolf could not have been the impact of the times. Active exploration of feminist ancestors and continually rising feminist movement was the broad social background of Virginia Woolfs feminist ideology. Western academia generally agreed that the origin of feminist thought should be traced back to 18th century women writers made a number of feminist demands and Feminist Literary Criticism.Britains Mary Wollstonecraft speak out speak out for womens political participation, women should enjoy equal right of education, and made “women to master their own” ideas firstly, expected women to become “informed citizens” and can be “Self-reliant, not dependent on men”, demanding for equal rights with men on politics economy education and marriage. 19 世纪下半叶至 20 世纪初的法国资产阶级革命和启蒙运动的兴起以及欧洲工业革命的迅猛发展，特别提 1847 年 7 月首届女权大会在美国纽约州的召开，标志着妇女运动进入了思想解放的新阶段，妇女争取权利的斗争首先在法国、英国、美国迅速展开接着波及整个欧洲。 Half of the 19th century to early 20th century French bourgeois revolution and the rise of the Enlightenment, and the rapid development of the industrial revolution in Europe, in particular, in July 1847 the first Womens Rights Conference held in New York in the United States marked Womens movement entered a new stage of emancipation. The struggle for womens rights began from France, the United Kingdom, the United States and then spread rapidly across Europe. This period the United Kingdom, the air of freedom and democracy as the dawn of the dawn broke through the fog of the 18th, the 19th century patriarchal society and lighted the way forward the feminist movement. Some public legislation in the 19th century gave women more rights, such as the husband has the responsibility to provide social security for women, the wife can act as the executor of her husband financially and defenders. Industrial revolution, the destruction of the family economy and a large influx of women into the labor market, has laid a good foundation for the feminist movement. In turn, the development of the feminist movement promotes freedom and democratic process. In 1839, Britain passed the Child Care Act to require the mother to care for children under 7 years old; In 1853, passed Womens Property Act; In 1870 ,passed the first Married Womens Property Act which would ensure that women have property rights; In1870,Parliament passed the Marriage and Divorce Act to legalize divorce and women won the right to divorce; in 1883 abolished the slavery of vassal state; In 1892, the British adopted the Womens Voting Rights Act ; in 1928, the British women obtained full voting rights. Woolf lived in a time when feminist movement was rising constantly, the atmosphere of freedom and democracy was increasingly strong, the voice of women demanded the liberation grew louder, which were the hotbed of feminist thoughts of Woolf. 2.2 The Cause of Family “Victorian” is a typical patriarchal society, which have obvious features - boys are superior to girls; women can not receive education; women in the economy completely depend on men; women in the family and society have no place and so on. Although in childhood Woolf was smarter than her brothers, but she still could not escape the fate of that time arranged for all women. Her father preferred boys to girls and only sent her two brothers to public school, then entered the University of Cambridge to take up advanced studies. However, Virginia Woolf was left at home to be taught reading by her parents and did much housework. Harsh reality seriously hurtled her, and she attributed unfair treatment of her family to patriarchy. The resentment bred a strong feminist thinking.Another important source of her feminist ideology is the experience of strong sexual humiliation in the early years. Virginia Woolf suffered the two half-brothers sexual abuse from early childhood. Virginia Woolf wrote this point on her letters, diaries and memoirs, as i a letter she wrote to Ethel Smith said: “Think of my half-brothers, I was tempted to shame trembled. In my six years old, he stood beside me; his hand touched the lower part of my body.” (Yi Xiaoming 2002: 73） The author of The Biography of Woolf, Yi Xiaoping, also talked about sexual abuse issues in Woolfs childhood. She said: “Her half-brothers George Duckworth and Gerald Duckworth touched her in her young age, touching as the girl most secret parts of Virginia.” (Yi Xiaoming 2002: 62） In the patriarchal society, women are the familys private property, and men can do whatever they please. The experience is a humiliating memory for Virginia Woolf. When she was adult, she wrote it down in the work Moment There. In this work, she painfully recalled: “I feel like an unfortunate but small fish with a huge shark held in the same sink.” Some critics thought the prototype of Moment There is Virginia Woolf herself. The experiences of sexual harassment in her childhood made Woolf extremely hate on the hypocrisy, privileges and domination of men in the patriarchal society. She had a clear understanding of the status of slavery about women in the family, within her heart full of desire and longing for freedom and equality. In 1904, when she rented with her sister Vanessa to Bloomsbury, she was tempted to scream “Now we are free women!”2.3 Bloomsbury Group The experience of Bloomsbury Group is the theoretical basis of Woolf as a feminist. In 1904, The Virginias moved into the house in District 46, Gordon Square, Bloomsbury Area, and London. Here, a large number of advanced and talented young scholars from the University of Cambridge frequently got together to her house. They criticized the Victorian conservation and actively promoted a new free thinking, formed the famous Bloomsbury Group. Bloomsbury Group included a group of British cultural elite from the early twentieth century to the twenties and thirties. The Key figures are Leonard Woolf(her husband), art critic Clive Bell(her brother),Roger Fry, biographer Lytton Strachey, literary critic Desmond McCarthy, economist John Maynard Keynes, the painter Duncan Grant, writer Foster, philosopher Russell, novelist Henry James, poet TS Eliot. They often discussed freely the aesthetics and philosophy to form the Groups aesthetic and philosophical principles. They thought art should get rid of the needs of real life, convey the momentary impression, and look for “the form of performance expression”(Qu Shijing 1988: 58), actively explore interpersonal relationships, the nature of consciousness, sexual liberation and so on, and claim gender equality. The points of the group occupied the dominant position of the cultural life - including publishing, magazine editor, literary criticism. Woolf, as the major record of thoughts and ideas of the Bloomsbury Group, naturally accepted the philosophical and aesthetic ideas, the liberation of women seeking to pursue gender equality and the quality of beauty in art, and these became the important part of her feminist ideology. Therefore, Bloomsbury Groups experience is the theoretical foundation for Woolf later becoming an insight, critical and pioneering feminist.3 The Manifestation of Woolfs Feminist Ideas3.1 The Establishment of Womens Mode of Discourse In Woolfs view, if women writers want to shake off the male-centered concepts, they must find a way to express themselves. For this reason, Woolf made an enormous effort. In the book A Room of Ones Own, she specifically examined the history of womens writing. She observed Sappho, Amagasaki Shakeups history and found them “is a successor, is also a founder, and it became famous only because women naturally to gradually have the habit of writing.” She analyzed the women talent in Mrs. Wesleys poems; she spoke the Duchess Magorian Newcastle and her novels; she also criticized the concept of writing of submission to men proposed by Mary Karmic. In addition, she studied and praised the famous female writer as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, and George Eliot and so on. When she found such a tradition in Jane Austens writing, she can not help to praise: “Jane Austen reads the prose of man, smiles, and invents a perfect natural syntax, precisely fit for her own use, but never give up during her life. So, though she has less writing talent than Charlotte Bronte, she behaved more.” Of course, she rebuilt and extended womens writing style in her own creative practice. In her series of works, such as Night and Day, Kew Gardens, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Waves, Orlando and other works also full of female characteristics, and the works of women writers as Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, George Eliot, engraved in the growing of feminist literature. A series of female images she shaped and the modes of discourse and structure form she created had long been valuable asset of feminist literary tradition. In her essay Women and Fiction, Woolf also has been concerned about womens modes of discourse, and she called for “women writers must create by their own, modify the existing statement to fit the natural shape of her thought, so neither was crushed, not distorted her thinking.” In Woolfs literary creation and criticism, she used a large number of unorthodox theories style and mode of discourse different in writing by the patriarchal culture, to express the unique thinking of women more accurately and effectively. A Room of Ones Own embodies the breakthrough to the patriarchal theoretical modes of discourse. It uses many literary expression style as person setting, metaphor, literary fiction and symbolic to express her views.3.1.1 The First Person “I”Woolf uses the first person to highlight the womens modes of discourse as the main tendency. A Room of Ones Own uses the first person “I” as the main discourse, but the “I” is not the authors behalf, but refers to different women individuals among the history. “Call me Mary Patton, or Mali Seton, or Mallika Michael or any name you like to do - that there is no relationship” (Novel and Novelist 2000: 114). “Mary” is a feminine name, and the book is the representation of the voices of women. At the same time, the uncertainty of the last name “Mary”, also shows in the text “I” represents the set of all women rather than an individual. In addition, Woolf does not use the plural person “we”, which suggests that she stresses that the difference of main discourse, broke the general principle of the traditional patriarchal authority, contempt for their assimilation variant, and excluded difference. Suppressed in patriarchal culture, the men developed a series of value order. Women long under the influence of patriarchal culture, the forced values gradually became their own value within, only silence and a blank, only the worship and surrender. The position set by the patriarchal discourse makes them difficult to express their views, not to speak to the persistence in self-awareness as a subject of discourse. The extensive use of first person “I” in A Room of Ones Own makes it have a clear feminist color. It reflects the strong desire of expression, requires