This essay discusses how women in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby (1925) are portrayed in different ways. During this time between the world wars, progressive women walked the streets of New York. These ‘New Women’ wore short dresses, cut their hair, smoked and drank in public, and showed interest in politics and education. The New Woman is portrayed in different versions in the female characters Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson. These characters are also representations of the patriarchal idea of women as ‘good girls’ and ‘bad girls’, depending on how well they adapt to and fit into the traditional gender roles. Through a discussion of how Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are portrayed as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, the essay shows how the ‘bad girls’ in the novel are punished by patriarchy by being described unfavorably by the narrator or by suffering socially in a society with patriarchal values. / Den här uppsatsen diskuterar hur kvinnorna i F. Scott Fitzgeralds verk Den store Gatsby (1925) skildras på olika sätt. USA började förändras under mellankrigstiden, bland annat började en kvinnorörelse som resulterade i en ”ny typ av kvinna”. Kvinnorna började bära korta klänningar, klippte håret, drack och rökte offentligt samt intresserade sig för utbildning och politik. Den här nya kvinnan skildras på olika vis i de kvinnliga huvudkaraktärerna Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker och Myrtle Wilson. Men dessa karaktärer fungerar även som representationer av den patriarkala idén om att kvinnor är uppdelade i två kategorier: ’duktig flicka’ och ’dålig flicka’ beroende på hur väl de följer de traditionella könsrollerna. Genom att diskutera hur Daisy, Jordan och Myrtle är porträtterade som ’duktiga’ och ’dåliga’ visar uppsatsen hur de ’dåliga’ blir bestraffade av patriarkatet genom att bli ofördelaktigt beskrivna av berättaren eller bestraffade socialt i ett samhälle som genomsyras av patriarkala värderingar.

As a novel on contemporary issues (shishi xiaoshuo 时事小说), the unfinished novel The Stone of Goddess Nüwa (Nüwa shi 女娲石; 1904-1905) recounts a story about new women’s attempts to save the nation, which is a reflection of late-Qing China. From a historical perspective, I aim to provide a study of the Nüwa stone and characterization of new women in the novel with the help of multiple intertexts. My thesis explores how the stone and the characterization elaborate the theme and design of the novel: new women saving the nation, which includes radical ideas for women and national salvation in the late Qing. Against the socio-cultural context of The Stone of Goddess Nüwa, I argue that through the characterization and narrative designs of the stone, the novel presents its explorations to solve social and political problems for national salvation, in which female power plays a central and crucial role. This thesis endeavors to both enrich the understanding and value of The Stone of Goddess Nüwa from a historical perspective and call critical attention to its meaning in the decades’ exploration of improving both China and Chinese women in literary works from the late Qing.

The separate sphere ideology, dominant but never hegemonic in Victorian Britain, dictated that women’s natural vocation was to be wives and mothers. Between the years 1850 to 1901, the surplus woman problem and a nascent feminist movement challenged the separate sphere ideology. It was also reinforced by imperialist ideologies that held the British family as a sign of Britain’s superiority, and eugenics which placed great importance on heterosexual marriage and reproduction. How did novelists, especially women novelists, respond to the challenges against the separate sphere ideology? How did they depict unconventional women such as surplus women, women who behaved in transgressive ways, feminist women, lesbians, and women who were in interracial relationships? The conventional narrative stressed the importance of marriage, and unconventional characters either reformed themselves or met tragic fates. This remained consistent throughout the second half of the 19th century. At mid-century, unconventional women were the ones who rejected marriage, had an affair, etc. As women began to gain rights in education, work, and civic rights, the temptations that drew middle class women away from conventional life shifted to wanting to work or becoming feminists. Novels also depicted alien others, such as lesbians and non-white people, as menaces and threats to conventional marriage. Acceptable unconventionalities were limited: it was acceptable for women to be unconventional if they were exceptional or they broke one convention but upheld another, such as motherhood. At the end of the century, New Women novelists and other novelists that sympathetically depicted unconventional women critiqued the separate sphere ideology, but were overwhelmingly pessimistic about the possibility that women could escape convention.

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本論文以1861年至1936年間的俄國「新女性」特質變化為主題，從雷蒙威廉斯文化霸權理論之角度，探討主流「新女性」特質的改變過程。十九世紀中葉，俄國沙皇受西歐影響，推動工業化與現代化政策，企圖將落後的傳統農業社會轉型成現代化工業都市。一八六一年亞歷山大二世解放農奴，農民進城求職，俄國步入都市化階段。都市化使俄國政治、經濟、文化、思想與社會結構產生劇變，其中以鄉村與城市人口結構改變對社會影響最大。男人從傳統農夫變成城市工人，農村勞力的空缺只能由婦女遞補。女性為維持生計與照顧家庭，漸漸從家庭附屬地位變成主導地位，甚至出現大量走出家庭工作的工廠女工。 從這段時期至一九三○年間，整個俄國社會以女性角色變化最為顯著。 教育普及使得平民知識份子數量漸增，向西方學習的社會風氣與心理驅使許多俄國男女出國留學。女性教育水平提高，範圍也從貴族階層深入至中產階級之女性。西化的知識份子將西歐社會男女平權的思想引進傳統的俄國封建社會，男尊女卑的社會觀念與傳統性別特質受到質疑。在這些西化知識份子的鼓吹下，女性開始滲入過去由男性主導的公共領域。她們致力將兩性平等意識帶入俄國，欲改變男權主導社會下女性之悲慘命運。儘管遭遇許多挫折，「女性問題」成功引起社會大眾注意，而這些不同以往的俄國女性便被稱為「新女性」(Новая женщина)。一八六○～七○年代除了國家與社會問題，婦女解放、女性主義與激進改革思潮同樣為社會爭論的焦點。 「新女性」特質不僅象徵女性運動發展，它代表一種意識型態。生理性別(sex)或許只牽涉到男人與女人在生理上之差異，但性別認同(gender)卻與社會、文化有極大的關係。男性與女性在不同的社會期待下產生不同的思維方式，「人們傾向於相信他們已瞭解到，一個人是男是女，並不是因為透過生理上的檢查而決定這個人是生物意義上的男性或女性。相反地，我們往往會去注意一個人是否具有男性氣概或女性特質。在我們的社會中，性別是個人的一項社會性特質，此特質只在某些時候才會與生物性別相互一致。」 所以，一般認為的女性氣質乃是社會建構出來的結果，而非女性天生如此。男性依照自己的期望塑造女性特質，藉由社會化過程讓女性在無形中受到箝制。也就是說，性別意識型態透過社會傳播與灌輸，進入女性的意識中，此一過程即為「型塑」(fashioning)。 十九世紀男性作家筆下的新女性、女性自我期許的新女性及蘇聯共產社會的蘇聯新女性，這三種不同的認知代表不同的意識型態，同時發揮不同的文化作用。 英國文化研究學著雷蒙‧威廉斯乃是將西方馬克思主義者葛蘭西(Antonio Gramsci, 1891-1937)提出的霸權(hegemony)概念應用至一般文化現象之人。他認為所有文化建構過程都是經由殘留、主流與新興三股力量交會演變而成。這三股力量各自產生不同的意識型態與文化，三種文化的相互影響將決定統治階級是否能穩固其政權。西方馬克思主義乃是延伸馬克思主義的階級概念而發展出的文化理論，但統治與被統治關係並非僅存於資本階級社會，號稱摧毀階級制度的蘇維埃無產階級社會同樣存在統治與被統治關係。一八六一年到一九三六年正值俄國新舊政權交替之時，社會混亂且人民思想自由，殘留、主流與新興文化之互動尤其明顯。本論文透過「新女性」特質轉變呈現俄國文化發展與蘇維埃文化霸權建立之過程。