Popular fantasy is often populated by members of different species, such as dwarves, elves, and orcs. Much of the narrative structure of the genre comes from the interactions and conflicts between these species, with many of them serving as stand ins for real world culture. This has become the underlying fabric of fantasy fiction and has deep resonance in our contemporary pop culture. However, many of these depictions are founded on colonialist constructions of race and otherness, turning the genre into a medium for reproducing racist ideologies, often unconsciously. This thesis examines the origins and trajectory of this trend by looking at one of the most well- known examples of contemporary fantasy: Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

本篇論文試圖闡釋美國通俗羅曼史中男性主角的角色特質，及其自一九七二年至二○○○年間所產生的變化。 對通俗羅曼史中的女主角而言，男主角同時扮演著救贖者和迫害者的雙重角色。故事中，男主角自困境中拯救女主角，也是造成女主角各種不安的元兇。男主角的雙重性一方面增加通俗羅曼史的故事性，一方面也反映女性讀者在日常生活中所遭遇的類同困惑。論文由凱瑟林•渥迪威斯的《意外的情人》及露絲瑪麗•羅傑斯的《狂野的愛》兩部一九七○年代的重要作品開始進行討論，試圖勾勒出本文類中男性主角所擁有的概略角色形象。 男主角的陽剛特質通常藉由各種力量的展示表現；這些力量包括經濟、社會及身體等各種層面，並對女主角形成強大的吸引力。陽剛男主角代表著故事最後女主角終將獲得的獎賞，而透過對於陽剛特質的著墨，通俗羅曼史中關於女性力量至上的幻想方能得以達成。然而當男性身體的力量過度被著墨，對於陽剛特質的描述則將陷入暴力或力量的混淆，通俗羅曼史中的強暴情節也則因此產生。 隨著通俗羅曼史的演進，故事中男主角的社會地位不再高不可攀，和女主角的互動也顯得較不強勢。在一九九○年代之後出版的故事中，男主角較少扮演指導者或權威的角色。拯救者和被拯救者角色地位的互換，讓兩名主角取得更加平衡的關係。通俗羅曼史的故事焦點由女主角身上擴展為男女主角雙方的故事，男性主角的角色塑造更加受到重視，而其陽剛特質的詮釋方式也更為多樣化。 / This thesis aims to articulate the role of the masculine hero in American popular romances and the change of their roles throughout the three decades from1972 to 2000. The hero performs as the savior and the villain for the heroine in popular romances. He is the savior to rescue her from the troubles and his villainy can be threatening to her in the story. The duality of the hero dramatizes the romantic narrative and reflects certain everyday situations that trouble female audience. The discussion begins with two important works of the 1970s, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower and Rosemary Rosemary Rogers’s Sweet, Savage Love to demonstrate a general picture of the hero’s role in the narrative. The masculinity of the hero usually expressed in the form of display of strength. The strength can be economic, social and physical, and appears all but desirable for the heroine to obtain. The masculine hero is the final prize for the heroine so that the empowerment to women as the fantasy provided by popular romances is then achieved through the elaboration on masculinity. However, when the strength displayed in the physical form is overemphasized, the descriptions on masculinity fall into the confusions between violence and strength. The rape incident in popular romances is a product of such confusions. When popular romances evolve, the social position of the hero declines in the story and he becomes less predominant in the interaction with the heroine. He becomes less an instructor or an authoritative figure in the novels of the 1990s. The reverse roles between the rescuer and the rescued lead to a more balanced relationship between two protagonists. The story of popular romances changes its focus from the concentration on the heroine to a story of the heroine and the hero. The characterization of the hero is then more emphasized, and the expression of the masculinity of the hero becomes more variable.

本文旨在掘發《三六九小報》(以下簡稱《小報》)中「通俗小說」之女性造型的書寫及相關敘事模式，並廓清三O年代《小報》創作社群觀看女性的文化視域；且進一步與日治時期其他小說文本並列比較，從而顯豁《小報》通俗小說中的「女性」圖像意義，全文共計五章，簡述如下： 第一章緒論。本章為全文論述框架之簡述，第一節中說明研究動機，第二節進行研究現況之檢討，第三節在分析相關先行研究之基礎下，思考本文可能之論述發展，並指出本文研究範圍，及援用之研究方法。 第二章「女性」造型——《小報》通俗小說中「女性形象」的書寫與敘事。本章根據通俗小說類型的歸納、整理，分析《小報》通俗小說的「程式化」現象；第一節「小說敘事模式」，指出通俗小說中的程式化情節，傳達大量重複的訊息，反映通俗創作社群取材的興味；而作者聲音對文本故事干預程度的強弱，則可由作者／敘事者的相對關係進行觀察；再者，《小報》多以旁觀者的視角，取用全知敘事或限制敘事的敘事觀點，也開展了不同的敘事風格。第二節「女性造型書寫」，由命名意義、身體描摹、形象設計及意象隱喻等角度，對《小報》小說中女性形象的塑造，作形式上的探求。 第三章書寫女性的文化視域。文本中女性被書寫的文化意涵，呈顯出性別、文化的關係；第一節「父權體制的壓迫」，說明傳統價值觀影響所及，男尊女卑，女性地位低落，一方面面臨被「物化」的命運，一方面受到「婦德」的規範，從而建構了錯誤的自我認知；第二節「對社會的控訴」，挾帶資本主義而來的殖民社會，女性面對生活的窘迫，其處境的艱難、命運的悲慘，是社會中多重壓迫的犧牲者；第三節「婚戀問題的省思」，在新／舊文化的衝激下，受教育新女性／童養媳，大多在自由戀愛中失敗、在傳統婚姻中不幸，顯見《小報》創作社群處於文化過渡時期，對於傳統婚戀與新式婚戀，均懷隱憂、質疑與不安。 第四章「女性」圖像的書寫策略差異——《小報》與其他通俗小說中「女性」敘事的比較。經過第二、三章小說文本的討論，已為《小報》小說中女性形象定調，本章則據此展開與其同時或前後的文言、白話通俗小說作品之比較研究；第一節「與《小報》之前文言通俗小說作品的比較」，與李逸濤發表於《漢文臺灣日日新報》（1905-1911），以淺近文言文寫成的46篇通俗小說作品，進行對話；第二節「與《小報》同時或其後白話通俗小說作品的比較」的討論參照系前衛出版社所發行《臺灣大眾文學系列》，以及四O年代的《風月報》、《南方》中的白話長篇通俗小說。藉此掌握《小報》書寫載體文言、白話兼有，作品的選材、小說敘事者聲音的不盡相同的現象，並突顯出風味各異的書寫策略取向。 第五章結論。總結前文，指出本文研究的要點及其意義，最終呈顯出《小報》乃置於一個通俗小說創作的過渡期，在文言與白話通俗小說發展史上，別具遞變、糾葛的交混面貌；且在三O年代特殊的現代化情境中，《小報》通俗小說的文學敘事與文化視域，有著鮮明的文化氛圍及歷史語境，而其所建構的饒富時代意義的女性圖像，更具耐人玩味的性別視野。 / The purpose of this study was to investigate the written description of female appearance and related narrative mode in “popular fictions” of 369 Tabloid, and to figure out the cultural vision of the writers of 369 Tabloid toward females in the 1930s; moreover, there were comparisons between 369 Tabloid and other novels during the Japanese-ruled period to show forth the significance of “female” images of popular fictions in 369 Tabloid. There are five chapters in this thesis, and the brief previews are as follows: Chapter one is the introduction part. This chapter showed the frame of this study. The first section provided the motivation of this study, the second section contained the aspects of problem already studied by other researchers, and the third section presented the need for more investigation based on the previous research, pointing out the realm of this study as well as the research method being used. Chapter two was titled “female” appearance—the description and narration of “female images” in popular fictions of 369 Tabloid. According to the collection of different types of popular fictions, this chapter displayed the phenomenon of the fixed patterns in popular fictions of 369 Tabloid; the first section, “Narrative mode of fictions”, indicated that the phenomenon of the fixed patterns in popular fictions showed a great number of repetitive messages, reflecting an interesting angle in choosing the material among common writers; and the intensity of interference from the writer’s viewpoint to the story could be observed through the relative position of the writer/narrator; furthermore, 369 Tabloid was mostly written through the view of an onlooker, employing the narrative technique of 全知敘事 or 限制敘事，and thus developed a totally different narrative style. The second section, “Description of female appearance”, explored the formation of female image in the fictions of 369 Tabloid according to the meaning of the characters’ names, description of their body, image design, imagery metaphor and so on. Chapter three was about the female status in culture. In light of the way women were presented in the text, we could see the relationship between gender and culture; the first section “Oppression from the fatherhood system”, illustrated that due to traditional values, the concept that male was better than female, and female had a lower status than male had on the one hand made female face the destiny of being materialized and on the other made them construct a false self-recognition because of being confined by “female virtues”; the second section, “The accusation toward society”, showed that living in a colonial society which advocated capitalism, women faced difficulties in life, and the difficult situations and miserable destiny surrounding them let them become victims of multiple oppression; the third section, “Reflection on marriage and love”, pointed out that under the impact of new/old culture, new women with education/ child bride, had mostly failed in free love or been distressful in traditional marriage, and these all revealed that writers of 369 Tabloid were in a transitional stage—they felt worried, suspicious, and uneasy whether in traditional love and marriage or new love and marriage. Chapter four consisted of different writing strategies used in displaying “female” images—the comparison between 369 Tabloid and other popular fictions. In chapter two and three, the discussion about the text itself had already made the female images of the fictions in 369 Tabloid clear, and to go a step further, this chapter included the comparison between 369 Tabloid and other classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese popular fictions, no matter at the same period or other times; in the first section, “The comparison between 369 Tabloid and previous classical Chinese popular fictions”, the compared target were 46 popular fictions written in simple classical Chinese and published in 漢文台灣日日新報 by 李逸濤(1905-1911); in the second section, “The comparison between 369 Tabloid and contemporary or later vernacular Chinese popular fictions”, the compared target were台灣大眾文學系列published by 前衛publisher, and the vernacular Chinese popular fictions in Feng-yue-bao and Nan-fang in the 1940s. After these research, the results that there were both classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese used in 369 Tabloid, and that various materials as well as narrator voices were employed in it were shown. This also revealed that different writing strategies were used in different popular fictions. Chapter five is the conclusion part. This chapter summarized the previous chapters, pointing out the gist and significance of this study, finally showing that 369 Tabloid is at the transitional stage of popular fictions; that is, we can see the changing, entangled, and blended phase in the developmental history of classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese popular fictions in 369 Tabloid; besides, under the special modernized condition in the 1930s, the literary narrative and cultural vision in 369 Tabloid made it distinctive in its cultural atmosphere and historical background. And the female images it had constructed during that time had provided us with an interesting view toward the gender issue.