Thesis (Ph. D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 362-384). Also available in electronic version.

This thesis examines the theme of gender and power relationships in the works of Ding Ling (1904-1986) and Zhang Ailing (1920-1995), focusing particularly on two novels: Ding Ling’s The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River (1948) and Zhang Ailing’s The Rice-Sprout Song (1954). Through this examination, this thesis demonstrates the critiques by these authors of the CCP and its policies which, while ostensibly guaranteeing equality to women, in actuality do nothing more than reinscribe traditional Confucian gender values. This thesis situates these novels historically, and places them into the context of the author’s other writings. The analysis focuses on three main aspects of these two novels: violence, repression of women’s desire, and female sexuality. Through a close reading informed by a feminist approach to gender relationships, this thesis demonstrates the startling similarities in the critiques of Ding Ling and Zhang Ailing, despite the writers’ different political ideologies and situations in regard to the CCP.

Spanning forty years apart, the short story “Miss Sophia’s Diary” (1926) by Ding Ling and The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath can speak to one another in revealing the position of women in a revolutionary new era. The two stories may be generationally and geographically distant, yet both hold a collective female consciousness in the context of the emerging modernist epoch. By examining these two pieces of literature in relation to one another, similar attitudes and stylistic trends emerge regarding the treatment of women. The common archetypes, for each respective time and country, imprinted onto women are at some points accepted but also rejected in these two female-focused stories. In disregarding many of the traits associated with the modern woman, Ling and Plath mold a unique feminine persona to capture the essence of what a true woman can and should be. Not only does the likeness of the works contribute in establishing a global feminist ideal, it is in the differences where cultural and generational attitudes can be investigated. What the pillar of feminism represented in early 1920s China differs significantly from 1950s United States of America. Though these differences can be signs of progression for woman’s rights, there are many of the same anxieties surrounding women that have lingered on for decades. This thesis will conduct a comparative study on how the “Miss Sophia’s Diary” and The Bell Jar posses the unique variations of the modern woman. Furthermore, with the use of a web-based corpus analysis program, this thesis sets out to probe selections from both works linguistically. Doing so will uphold a clearer image as to each texts’ word associations when discussing women and can further reveal how the construction of each female persona compares to one another. Overall, this thesis dismantles borders of both time and space to expose the true meaning behind the modern woman’s role in a largely demeaning and patriarchal world.

本文共分五章。第一章緒論，約略敘述中國婦女解放運動發生的原因，和其強烈的救亡色彩，所產生的不利影響。第二章，討論魯迅及其所屬時代。從〈我之節烈觀〉對傳統貞節觀的批判，到〈娜拉走後怎樣〉經濟解放的時代宣示，魯迅小說《祝福》和《傷逝》中的女性也標幟著不同時代的變化。一個是肩負反傳統任務的苦難婦女，一個則不僅是象徵五四精神精神的中國娜拉，還身被對五四個性解放的反省。 　　第三章分析茅盾。茅盾個人的婦女解放觀和魯迅可以說是一脈相承。魯迅雖然提出經濟解放，卻沒有明示一條實行的道路，茅盾則直指革命，加入工農群眾，必須先達到社會解放，婦女才能得到解放。筆者選擇了《蝕》、《虹》兩部長篇小說和《野薔薇》□五個短篇小說集所創造的一系列的「時代女性」來分析。這些「時代女性」可以說是婦女史上自五四到五卅這段時期女性的具體圖像，她們不只是出走的娜拉，並且已是都市的「小資產階級女性」。在戀愛與革命之間，尋找自我的定位，最後茅盾以其男性的觀點，將婦女解放寄託在共黨革命上。第四章丁玲及其小說，丁玲是和這個男性主流意識妥協的典型代表。丁玲蜚聲文壇的作品《夢珂》、《莎菲女士的日記》，以一個女性對於愛與性的痛苦掙扎和需求，來探索女性的心靈狀態，呈現女性觀點的兩性關係。除了對父權社會的批判外，丁玲觸角伸到男性婦女解放觀點一個薄弱的層面：夫權的批判。自《夢珂》以後到一九二九年的作品，大都存有她個人的女性意識。但到一九三○年以後，為了順眾時代的潮流，她不期然地追隨了五四以來的「男性女性主義者」的道路，把婦女問題附屬在社會問題上。從《韋護》、《一九三○年春上海（之一）》、《一九三○年上海（之二）》到《水》，丁玲讓女主角們由女性自我向革命大眾妥協。包括她自己本身，也同時有了出路。 　　第五章結論，自戊戌以來，救亡圖存，政治、社會革命成為中國婦女解放運動主基調的結果，淡化了男性批判和女性的自我反思。儘管女性改善了社會地位和社會權利，但這並不是婦女解放運動真正精神內涵。唯有從女性自覺，以「性別」角度去揭開父權社會所加於中國婦女解放運動的重重障礙，方才能尋出女性在社會中的角色和定位，永遠不再陷入「娜拉走後怎樣」的循環夢魘中。