英语专业课程论文-父权社会中的新女性——《夏日鸟笼》的女性主义解读.doc

唐 山 学 院 课 程 论 文论文题目：父权社会中的新女性夏日鸟笼的女性主义解读 系 别： 外语系 班 级： 08英本（2）班 姓 名： 指 导 教 师： 2011年12月The New Women in Patriarchal Society A Female Interpretation of A Summer Bird-cage Student: Wang YanpingSupervisor: Lu XianweiDepartment of Foreign LanguagesTangshan CollegeDecember, 2011父权社会中的新女性夏日鸟笼的女性主义解读摘要玛格丽特·德莱布尔生于1939年，是当今英国文坛一颗耀眼的明珠。1963年她发表其处女作夏日鸟笼而一举成名。多年来她笔耕不辍，硕果累累，迄今已有多部长篇及短篇小说问世，她的声誉与日俱增，在学术界享有相当的声望。作为一名女性作家，她深刻同情那些在父权社会中深受压迫和不平等待遇的女性，尤其关注知识女性（新女性）的命运和生活处境，因此，她的作品深受女性主义思想的影响。正是由于她对这些女性问题的关注，而被称为“妇女小说家”。她的作品早已饮誉文坛，西方文学评论家从各个不同角度对其作品有大量研究、评论，但目前国内对她的介绍和研究却只是刚刚起步。本文选择了玛格丽特·德莱布尔的处女作夏日鸟笼来进行分析。毫无疑问，女权主义思想在玛格丽特·德莱布尔地小说创作生涯中起了不可或缺的作用。因此本文主要借这篇作品来探讨玛格丽特·德莱布尔的女权主义思想，以及在当时社会下知识女性如何应对这些压迫和束缚，其结果又是如何。本文主要分为三部分，第一部分对玛格丽特·德莱布尔和她的处女作夏日鸟笼做了简单的介绍，第二部分主要描述了本文的理论基础，西蒙娜·德·波伏娃的女权主义思想和文学评论家及社会学家给“新女性”的定义，第三部分也就是最后一部分，对这篇作品中的“新女性”以及写作手法进行了分析。通过分析这篇作品，可以给当代女性以警示，切勿重蹈覆辙，她们虽然敢于反抗，追求自我，却最终没有成功。 关键词：玛格丽特·德莱布尔 夏日鸟笼 西蒙娜·德·波伏娃 新女性The New Women in Patriarchal Society- A Female Interpretation of A Summer Bird-cageAbstractMargaret Drabble, born in 1939, is one of the brightest stars in the present British literary world. In the year 1963, when she was 23, she published her first novel The Summer Bird-cage, which won her overnight fame. For these years, she has never stopped her literary career and made a great many achievements. And for now, having published a variety of novels, she enjoys increasing fame in the contemporary literary world. As a woman novelist, she shows her deep sympathy for the women who were oppressed and treated unequally in the male-dominated society, especially for the fate and life situation of the intellectual women or new women. So her works are influenced by the feminism and she is called “womens novelist” for her concern on women. As well-known to the world, her works have been appreciated by the western critics from various perspectives, but little has been carried on in China, which is only started.This paper chooses the very novel The Summer Bird-cage, her first novel. There is no doubt that feminist plays an essential role in Margaret Drabbles works. This paper mainly deal with her feminism and how these new women fight against the oppression and bound as well as their result. Three parts are contained in this paper. Part One gives a brief introduction to the author Margaret Drabble and The Summer Bird-cage. Then Part Two will attach the attention onto Simone de Beauvoir's feminist literary theories and the definition of new women. Part Three shifts the focus on the new women in The Summer Bird-cage and the depicting devices used in the work. This paper will provide the women today with the experience, warn them not to go in the same way, which is an dead-end way, where these intellectual women dared to fight and pursue their own freedom and happiness but failed in the end.Key words: Margaret Drabble; The Summer Bird-cage; Simone de Beauvoir; new womenContentsIntroduction1Part I Margaret Drabble and Her A Summer Bird-cage21.1 Margaret Drabble's life and literary career21.2 A brief introduction to A Summer Bird-cage3Part A Brief Introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's Feminist Literary Theories and the Definition of New Women52.1 A brief introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's feminist literary theories52.2 The definition of new woman6Part The New Women in A Summer Bird-cage83.1 Sarah, a sober observer83.2 Louise, a predatory eagle10Conclusion12Acknowledgments13Notes14Bibliography15唐 山 学 院 课 程 论 文Introduction Margaret Drabble is a famous women writer at home and abroad since she published her first novel The Summer Bird-cage in 1963. Most of her works give much attention to the women who are treated unequally and oppressed in the male-dominated society, especially the new women, who are the intellectual women that accepted higher education and fight for their own freedom and happiness with full courage. But how do they strive for their dream? And what is the result? And why do they come into this kind of result? There are so many questions about her and her novel that some of them will be discussed in this paper.This paper attempts to analyze her first novel A Summer Bird-cage from feminism. In this novel, Margaret Drabble describes some women trying to find a way out without exception. But they failed in the end.There are totally three parts in this paper. Part One will make a brief introduction to Margaret Drabble and her The Summer Bird-cage. In Part Two, attention is paid on Simone de Beauvoir's feminist literary theories and the definition of new women. And in the third Part, focus will be shifted onto the novel again to analyze the new women and the depicting devices of the novel.Part I Margaret Drabble and Her A Summer Bird-cage Margaret Drabble is a famous woman writer in British literary world. She has published seventeen novels to date. And most of her novels give much attention onto the women's life and their fate. 1.1 Margaret Drabble's life and literary careerMargaret Drabble was born on June 5th, 1939 in Sheffield, Yorkshire. She grew up in a well-to-do family for her father was a lawyer before retirement and her mother was a teacher once. It is one of the reasons that she received fairly good education. As a child, Margaret Drabble was sent to a Quaker boarding school, the Mountain school in York. After attending the Quaker boarding-school Mount School at York, where her mother was employed, Drabble received a major scholarship for Newnham College, Cambridge. She studied English and was awarded a starred double first. And in 1960, she graduated from Cambridge University as a top student. Then she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon, at one point serving as an understudy for Vanessa Redgrave, before leaving to pursue a literary career. Drabble was married to actor Clive Swift between 1960 and 1975; they have three children, one of whom is gardener and TV personality Joe Swift. In 1982, she married the writer and biographer Michael Holroyd (now Sir Michael); they live in London and Somerset. Maybe most of the Chinese readers are not so familiar with her, but in the present British literary world, she is a prestigious novelist. Her first novel, A Summer Bird Cage, was published in 1963. Since then, she has become a bright star in the world literature. When she come into the literary world in 1960s, it was the very time when feminist movement was blooming and the women novels were thriving. The young Drabble was deeply influenced by Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex and the feminist movement, so her works mostly reflects women's life environment and their real inner thought. "This seemed to me to be wonderful material and so important to me as a person. It was material that nobody had used and I could use and nobody had used as far as I would use."1 Since she published her first novel A Summer Bird-cage, she never stops writing, and 17 novels has been published until now. There are some of her works, The Garick Year (1964), The Mill-stone (1965), which was given the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Award, Jerusalem the Golden (1967), which was rewarded the Jams Tait Black Memorial Book Prize, The Waterfall (1969), The Needle's Eye (1972), which was presented the Book of the Year Award from the Yorkshire Post, The Realms of Gold (1975), The Ice Age (1977), The Middle Ground (1980), etc.Besides, Drabble has won a lot glory, such as she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1980 Queen's Birthday Honours, the University of Cambridge awarded her an honorary Doctorate in Letters in 2006, and she was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.Drabble's early works are all written in the first point of view to give us a true reflection of women's life, especially the women who are well educated. Most of the heroes have beautiful dreams for their future and career, but the cruel reality compels them to surrender to the life. They could never realize their dream. Since these works are published, Margaret Drabble is worthy the name of a woman writer and a critic as well. She establishes her increasing fame in the contemporary literary horizon. She was praised of by Sheriden Baker:Margaret Drabble is the girl for me. She is Jane Austin modernized, with sex admitted. She seems born knowing what Lessing Martha is still questing. She accepts life, and all its breakage, with irony, wits and unerring perception indeed with a very unobtrusive, almost Shakespearean, wonder at the mysteries of chance and time her sense of language, her people and their speech, are true to the bone2.With the development of her writing career, Margaret Drabble is enjoying a steady and sure literary position at home and abroad. And her works will be a bright light in the darkness for women.1.2 A brief introduction to A Summer Bird-cageA Summer Bird-cage is Margaret Drabble's first novel, which won her a big success overnight. This novel was written during the period she was expecting her first child. It offers two choices for women: marriage and career, and describes the heroine Sarah Bennet's process of inner growth. It depicts a young lady's claim for marriage and her confusion when she was exposed to many choices. This novel shows Drabble's exploration for the situation of women locked in the patriarchal society.In this novel, the heroine Sarah Bennett who graduated from Oxford with a first class honours degree, is coming back home from Paris for her sister, Louise's wedding. Now she is suffering the future, marriage or career? She thinks her present job as a tutor abroad is really a way of wasting time. When her sister calls her home, at first she has no hesitation. Actually , as a intellectual woman without the pressure from tradition, she gets herself lost inevitably. She is not so confident with her marriage. Her sister Louise lives a life which is rich but lacks of love, so that she has to support her emotional life with an extramarital affair. This makes Sarah be afraid of marriage. So when hearing her lover is going to receive further education for a year, she doesn't feel reluctant to leave, but a kind of relief instead. Because this provides her enough time to have a good consideration about her marriage. Obviously the absent lover prevents Sarah from having definitely to place herself within or without the bird-cage. Besides, Louise and other women also offer her the warnings and examples. It is difficult for Sarah to choose between marriage and career, or even to envisage he future. This novel is a realistic novel which depicts the women's real life experience, shows their awareness of self-consciousness and expresses their desire for the free life. The heroine Sarah's confusion is a symbol of the confusion that the new women in the 1960s encounter with. Marriage or career, this is a difficult question. To the new women in the British society, who has received the feminist thought, this is a new question that their mothers has never met. This choice, which provides some possibility to break the old marriage system, brings them a kind of freedom with a lot confusion. As we all know, freedom is a double-edged sword and a paradox as well in that society. As written for find a way for women, the novel has strongly resonated with the female readers. Part A Brief Introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's Feminist Literary Theories and the Definition of New WomenAs Margaret Drabble said, the novel was written deeply influenced by Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex and her feminism literary theories. Drabble describes some new women in this novel to present her opinion to marriage and shows her sympathy for the women who were locked in the patriarchal society cage. So in this part, Simone de Beauvoir's feminist literary theories and new women will be briefly introduced.2.1 A brief introduction to Simone de Beauvoir's feminist literary theoriesThe word feminism, with the same meaning of women liberation, comes from France. The feminists strongly believe in the equality between man and woman. So they attempt to eliminate the discrimination against women in the field of economy, society, politics and culture. They want to break the confinement, to "restore women from the realm of the given into the free terrain of the chosen, the created"3. All these feminist movements are aiming to end women's oppression, to eliminate all the discrimination, to return women the equal rights which have been deprived of for long time. All in all, the feminists want to have women really liberated. Simone de Beauvoir, one of the most influential women critics, philosophers and social theorists in France of the 20th century. When she was only 19 years old, she announced that she would never let her life succumb to others' will. Her book The Second Sex is considered as the Bible of feminist movements. By this book, it is the first time that women began to think how the society turned them into the men's appendage. To arouse women's self-consciousness and subjectiveness, she even takes her own life experiences as examples, which bring her the most vicious abuse and attack. Though attacked for her pursuit of women freedom and complaint about the male-dominated society, Simone de Beauvoir insists that "Sexual liberation is integral to the liberation of women"4 It is the very book that makes women get to realize that they are not born inferior to men and gives them courage to oppose the society which derives them of their freedom and rights.As far as Simone de Beauvoir concerned, the duty of women as wives and mothers are thrust upon them by men to limit their freedom. In the book, she points out that "One is not born but rather becomes a woman."5 She explains that the female characters are not determined by the biological or psychological factors, but by the civilization and the society. In history, women have been defined as the "other sex", which is an aberration from the normal male sex. The male-dominated society creates women as "the other".Besides, about marriage, Simone de Beauvoir advocates the free marriage. Women, in that male-dominated society, are child-bearing machines and born to be good housewives. They have no choice but to obey their fathers and marry someone they don't like even haven't seen before. After the marriage, they can not choose what they want, but to look after well the children and the house at home all day without no free