伍尔夫《一间自己的房间》的女性主义解读【毕业论文】

1、（20_ 届）本科毕业设计英语伍尔夫一间自己的房间的女性主义解读a feminism reading of virgina woof，s aroom of one's own内容摘要弗吉尼亚伍尔夫是20世纪文坛上的一名杰出的女作家，她被尊为意识流小说的鼻 祖z-,与乔伊斯、福克纳等意识流小说大师齐名。同时，她又被尊为西方当代女性主 义的“母亲”，她认为女性应该在经济上和精神上独立，并拥有自己的生活空间和精神 空间。此外，还要勇于表达自我的真实想法。她认为女性主义的最终目的是消解两性之 间的对立，以达到两者的和谐状态。因此，她在一间自己的房间屮提出了 “双性同 体”理论。本文试图从女性主

2、义角度解读一间自己的屋子，分析伍尔夫的女性主义 思想，以期更好的理解文学中的女性主义。伍尔夫的女性主义思想在21世纪的今天仍有 极强的思考意义。关键字：弗吉尼亚伍尔夫；独立；空间；双性同体；女性主义abstractvirginia woolf is an outstanding woman novelist in 20th century she has been regarded as one of the representatives of the stream of consciousness, enjoying equal popularity with joyce and faul

3、kne匚 meanwhile, she is regarded as the mother of modern feminism in the west. she thinks that females should be financially and spiritually independent and have their own living space and spiritual space. in addition, women also need to express themselves bravely and sincerely she considers the fina

4、l goal of feminism is to dispel the opposition between males and females and to reach a harmonious state. therefore, she proposes the theory of androgyny in a room of one fs own. this thesis tries to discuss a room of one's own from the angle of feminism, and analyze woolfs feminism so as to see

5、k a broader understanding of feminism literature in general. studying woolf still has a profound meaning in 21st century.key words： virginia woolf; independence; space; androgyny; feminismcontentsabstractii1 introduction12 whafs feminism22.1 the etymology of the term nfeminismn22.2 the definition of

6、 the term "fbminisrrt32.3 virginia's concepts of feminism33 virginia feminist idea in a room of onejs own431 economic independence53.2 having a room of one's own6321 living space63.2.2 spiritual space73.3 establishing female's value73.4 the pursuit of androgyny84 factors leading to

7、virginia feminist view941 her parents"s influence104.2 the bloomsbury groups influence114.3 sexual assault by her brothers124.4 the industrial revolution and the women's right movement135 conclusion13bibliography17acknowledgements181 introductionvirginia woolf (1882-1941), is a famous woman

8、 novelist in the 20th century and she is one of the important modernist novelists. meanwhile, she is one of the representatives of the stream of consciousness, enjoying equal popularity with joyce and faulkner. whafs more, she is regarded as the mother of modem feminism in the west.literary criticis

9、m of virginia woolf has proliferated since the 1980s. some critics appraise her works and some appraise her person; some analyze her work's consciousness, and some analyze her feminism; some study her works from ethics, some from aesthetics, some from homosexuality, some from psychology she is n

10、ot only a great writer, but also a 11 forerunner, indeed the 'mother' of the contemporary anglo-american feminism55 as zhu gang describes. (zhu gang 2006: 342) as for her feminism, some criticize her feminism as an extreme type for they think her represented idea of feminism一androgyny means

11、she intends to replace male value with female value; some criticize her deviating the feminism for they think she couldn't bear her own female identity, so she had to give up to the patriarchal society and swamped in the mud of utopian thought of androgyny; while the others praise it highly for

12、it is an advancement in the stage of feminism's development.xu wei analyzes woolfs feminism, both as a theoretical analysis of gender inequality and oppression, and as a political movement. her paper analyzes that woolf how to analyze the question of "women writingn in the theory and how to

13、 practice it in her writing. woolf is concerned with the nature of womanhood. the focus on women characters in woolfs fiction is central to much early feminist criticism, as well as non- or anti-feminist criticism. to an extent, hangern and mandrogynyn are the two terms most central to feminist deba

14、tes on woolf. their centrality serves to further increase the importance of a room of one 9s own as the key text of woolfs feminism and feminism's woolf, for it is here that "anger” and "androgyny” are most fully discussed. and a room of one's own is seen by many critics to subdue

15、and repress women's anger in favor of a more serene gendertranscendent or androgynous creativity. (xu wei, 2004: 38-39) wu qinghong tries to analyze, to show and to criticize virginia's feminism in the development of western feminism. and she indeed did it, comprehensively and intensively. h

16、er main viewpoint is that virginia woolf is the most important representative person in the history of feminism's development. woolfs analysis on feminism corrected the shortage of feminism in 1890s to 1990s, which emphasized the equality between men and women on law. what's more, her femini

17、sm inspired the new feminist in 1960s and 1970s to deconstruct male's political and cultural supremacy and establish 化male's visual angle, which predicted the development direction of post-feminism in 1990s. (wu qinghong, 2005: 5) ma tingting draws a conclusion that woolfs feminism is not a

18、panacea for all women, but an occidental one with intense tendency of racialism.(ma tingting, 2006: i-ii) wu haixia probes the unique feminist thoughts of virginia woolf, which she thinks are quite different from most of the other feminists. it is clearly that since the appearance of feminism, the o

19、ppositions between men and women have been highlighted, and feminism is related to the marginalization of all women, with their being relegated to a secondary position. most feminists hold their views that the social culture is a patriarchal culture. woolf realizes that women are confronted with ine

20、qualities and exclusion in the patriarchal society. woolf witnesses the efforts and achievements the feminists have made to get equal rights and positions with men, whereas she airs her view that the final goal of feminism is to deconstruct the binary oppositions between the two sexes. she presents

21、her famous theory of nandrogynyn in a room of one fs own. she argues that androgyny is the best state of mind for writing, in which a writer can make perfect artistic expression. (wu haixia, 2007: ii)woolf criticizes the patriarchal society in her works, and prompts us to reexamine the history of hu

22、man by a female angle to create a new civilization. her ideology and perception opens and enlightens the idea of feminism in many aspects. this paper tries to analyze woolfs concepts of feminism through the reading of a room of one 9s own, to get a further understanding on feminism, which can also h

23、elp deepen chinese female's comprehension of feminism.2 what5s feminismat the very beginning of this paper, a basic question needs to be answered. that is what feminism is? in the academic circles of europe and america, lffeminismn generally refers to any activities to strive for and tick up for

24、 the right of females. it has several hundred years1 history and has complex contents. therefore, it is difficult to define it.2.1 the etymology of the term "feminism''the term nfeminismn is derived directly from the latin word femina, which means woman. this term and its derivatives or

25、iginated in france during the late 19<h century the first person who called herself feminist was a french suffragette activist, hubertine auclert( 1848-1914).she first used this term in her periodical called la citoyenne in 1880.(cai qing, 2005: 3) however, although this term was used in her peri

26、odicals, it was not popular among women advocates who were rather moderate. instead of ,tfeminist, these women called their organization hfeminine11. it was not until the beginning of the 20th century when nfeminismn became accepted by most women suffragette activists.2.2 the dehnition of the term “

27、feminism”in broad sense, feminism can be defined as social movement, which takes eliminating sex discrimination and ending the oppression on women as its political goals. it also includes the revolution in ideology and culture which emerged from the process for pursuing its political goals. in this

28、sense, feminists represent those who devote themselves in this movement sincerely, and any males and females who take part in the revolution of ideology and culture. in its narrow sense, feminism refers to a kind of methodology that regards and analyses a question in a gender perspective.feminism no

29、w stands for a movement or philosophy that questions the unequal balance of power between men and women. feminists fight for equality between men and women. the term hfeminism,f has become the name for the women's movement, the quest for social changes aimed at improving the position of women. f

30、eminism is defined both as hthe theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes h and n organize activity on behalf of women's rights and interests11. (merriam-webster, 2003: 461) hence, the term feminism is not only about the struggle for political rights. it is a system of

31、ideas and a social movement, directed towards opposing men's privilege of position and women's subordination. this term contains redistribution of power and recognition of sex equality.2.3 virginia's concepts of feminismvirginia woolf is not only a female writer, but also a pioneer of fe

32、minism. her essential contribution to feminism is her perseverance that social and economic elements are critical to shape women's creativity and perception according to her idea, women play a historical role to join in the creation of human civilization, especially the arts. what she emphasizes

33、 is that females should face the reality and think things that related to them instead of thinking things that concerned men therefore, she puts forward the idea that females should set up a literature of their own. to deal with the anger that appears in the process of writing and derives from the i

34、nequality between men and women, she proposes a concept of androgyny. an androgynous mind is the best state of mind for doing literary creation however, it causes a heated debate among later feminists. although it is controversial, she creates a bright future for females.virginiafs view of feminism

35、is embodied intensively in the idea of androgyny. androgyny has more than one meaning. it may refer to the anatomical coexistence of two sorts of sex organs in the same body; or else to the allegory of a form of spiritual perfection. in other cases, it is related to the explicit coexistence of male

36、and female qualities in the same entity. (wu haixia, 2007: 23-24) to put it simply, androgyny means full balance and command of an emotional range that includes male and female elements- she thinks the final goal for feminism is to eliminate the opposition between males and females. virginia's f

37、eminism includes economic independence, spiritual independence. her analysis on feminism corrected the shortage of feminism in 1890s to 1990s, which emphasized the equality between men and women on law. whafs more, her view of feminism inspired the new feminist in 1960s and 1970s to deconstruct male

38、's political and cultural supremacy and establish female's visual angle, predicting the orientation of post-feminism in 1990s.3 virginians feminist idea in a room of one's owna room of onefs own is virginia's representative work of feminism. in october, 192& virginia woolf was in

39、vited to give two academic speeches by cambridge university. one was in the art society of newnham, the other was in the gordon women college. the lecture topic was women and fiction the next year, she published a brochure, which was written on the basis of these two lectures. quickly, the booklet a

40、mazed the world with a single feat at that time. up to now, it has become the most famous work and has most readers compared to her other works. it is universally acknowledged as a declaration of western feminism.the work一-a room of one fs own can be divided into six parts. the first part describes

41、an experience in oxbridge university fabricated by the author, which shows an unfair treatment that females received in a patriarchal society. the second part represents a phenomenon that the author found a large amount of books about women's problems written by men in the england museum. whafs

42、worse, one professor claimed absolutely in his marvelous work that female's intelligence, physical power and morality are all lower than males. in the third part, the writer sketches a hypothetical ”judith” shakespeare, sister of william, who is as brilliant and promising as he, but her talent i

43、s undoubtedly buried by the patriarchal society. woolf traced back to the females* rough process for getting in the literature arena in the forth part. aphra behn (1640-1689), a playwright, novelist and poet of england, who is the first english female to became a professional writer in 17th century.

44、 then women writers began to feel proud and elated. however, most english women writers had to use males1 name as pen names to relieve their social pressure during the 19th century. in the fifth part, the author points out that it is necessary to strengthen females1 awareness of knowing the differen

45、ce between males and females. only in this way, she thinks, females can realize the true value of themselves. in the last part, virginia agrees with samuel taylor coleridge's androgynous idea, believing that a writer's creative soul should have both masculinity and femininity. in other words

46、, a person is a bisexuality instead of a unisexuality. a person is androgynous. when full balance and command of an emotional range that includes male and female elements reached, these men writers or women writers can create great works-3.1 economic independencefemales are facing an economic proble

47、m. as is known to all, economy is the basis of living. women lose their economic source, when the patriarchal society excludes them fi*om the public work, which causes them sink in a poor state. in reality, what females are engaged in are human beings1 personal production and all kinds of necessary

48、house works to maintain many families functions. when women are doing these, they use up their physical power, energy, and even sacrifice their lives. however, these are all done in the area of family. their yields often cannot leave any tangible fruits. for example, the cooked food will be eaten up

49、, the washed clothes will be dirty after wearing again, and children who have been raised up will leave home to get in their own world don't these household labors have any value? is there anybody who pays them salary? therefore, these natural, non-commercial labors are excluded from the social

50、labor by the patriarchal society, because they are only related with personal family members and they cannot create value directly. since the unpaid labor take up most energy of females, they lose their subject position in the society and lose the source of finance therefore, if females want to get

51、rid of the disadvantaged status imposed on them by history and reality, they should strive for the economic position. just like what woolf says in a room of one 9s own, women should have revenue of 500 pounds eveiy year. she considers that the main reason why there are so less women writers is that

52、our mother is too poor. for example, if mary's mother n had gone into business; had become a manufacturer of artificial silk or a magnate on the stock exchange; if she had left two or three hundred thousand pounds to fernham, we could have been sitting at our ease tonight and the subject of our

53、talk might have been archaeology, botany anthropology, physics, the nature of the atom, mathematics, astronomy, relatively, geography. if only mrs. seton and her mother and her mother before her had learnt the great art of making money and had left their money, like their fathers and their grandfath

54、ers before them, to found fellowships and lectureships and prizes and scholarships appropriated to the use of their own sex, we might.have looked forward without undue confidence to a pleasant and honorable lifetime spent in the shelter of one of the liberally endowed professions. we might have been

55、 exploring or writing; mooning about the venerable places of the earth; sitting contemplative on the steps of the parthenon, or going at ten to an office and coming home comfortably at half-past four to write a little poetry/ (virginia woolf, 2005: 576)they haven't learned how to make money, how

56、 to manage their own property. for thousands of years, women are handling house works and rearing children, while men are doing business for making money. while princes and aristocrats use their properties to build many schools and libraries, women are rejected out of the colleges; they are restrict

57、ed in a small circle of family. they have no rights to receive education. as a result of being deprived of enjoying rights of owning their own property, females1 desires for making money are constrained the thousands of years1 influence of patriarchal society places women in a penniless position.wom

58、en began to walk out of the household in 20th century. thus, many women writers sprung up. we can see that for the latest hundred years, the appearance of many women writers are concerned with the rights women have achieved, especially the acquirement of economic right, which plays an important and

59、positive role in art creating. woolf herself also admitted that she and her sister obtained all their father's books after their father's death, so she could start her writing careen in a room of one's own. the narrator also repeatedly says that but for her aunt's 500 pounds1 heritag

60、e, it might have been hard for her to break away most womenfs fate-working hard in the household or going out for earning money to keep the pot boiling all in all, females should be independent in the economy.3.2 having a room of one's ownvirginia said that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction? (virginia woolf, 20