On June 2, the two authors of "A Classic Introduction to Western Women's Novels" - Professor Yang Lixin from the School of Liberal Arts of Nanjing Normal University and Lecturer Wang Wei from the School of Foreign Languages of Nanjing Normal University, together with Professor

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2024-06-21

6 On June 2, the two authors of "A Classic Introduction to Western Women's Novels" - Professor Yang Lixin from the School of Liberal Arts of Nanjing Normal University and Lecturer Wang Wei from the School of Foreign Languages of Nanjing Normal University, came together with Professor Huang Xing from Nanjing University and Professor Lu Hongling from Nanjing Normal University Pioneer Bookstore Wutaishan Branch discussed the close connection between literature and real life on the relationship between women's literature and real life, the development and evolution of themes in Western women's novels, women's literature and women's spiritual growth, etc. The following is a transcript of the conversation.

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Yang Lixin: Dear book friends, good afternoon! I am very happy to come to Pioneer Bookstore and participate in the "Their Literature and the Growth of Women: A New Book Sharing Session on "Classic Introduction to Western Women's Novels"" co-organized by the Commercial Press and Pioneer Bookstore.

If we count from the Age of Enlightenment in Europe in the 18th century, the women's liberation movement in the West has been more than two hundred years ago, and the women's equal rights movement in China has also gone through a century of ups and downs. From Mr. Lu Xun's question "What will happen to Nora after she leaves?" to the dilemma and pain of how women choose between personal happiness and social responsibility, to women's pursuit of self-realization and face-to-face private desires, and how women feel when they have After "A Room of One's Own", female thinkers and writers at home and abroad have always been exploring how to practice the "double" conceived by Virginia Woolf. The concept of gender tolerance, communication, understanding and cooperation of "sexual homogeneity", how to abandon the binary opposition mindset of "subject and other" criticized by Simone de Beauvoir, and reflect on the so-called masculinity and femininity the nature of social construction and promote gender equality in Chinese society. In this process, many female novelists in the West not only used their outstanding talents and excellent literary writing to reflect on and criticize the long-term male-centered historical and cultural traditions, but also promoted the progress of society and the development of civilization. The development of Chinese culture and literature has provided rich spiritual nourishment. The small book I recommend to you today is the culmination of some of the insights and experiences of Dr. Wang Wei of the School of Foreign Languages of Nanjing Normal University and myself during the long-term teaching and research of women's literature. I also invite readers to criticize.

We are very honored to have the opportunity to communicate with Professor Huang Xing of Nanjing University and Professor Lu Hongling of Nanjing Normal University today. One of the themes of this sharing session, "'Their' Literature", is named after the American feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter's book "Their Own Literature: From Brontë to Wright". Sheen's British Women Novelists. The book is named after the masterpiece "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf, a pioneer in the study of British women's culture and a master of stream-of-consciousness novels. "Introduction to Classics of Western Women's Novels" (hereinafter referred to as "Introduction") covers many European and American women's literary classics from the end of the 18th century to the 21st century. Professor Huang Xing has been engaged in the study of French literature for a long time, especially the translation and research of women's literature. She is also an outstanding and talented writer. We first asked Professor Huang to talk about his understanding of female literature, the meaning and characteristics of female literature, and his long-term experience in writing and researching female literature.

"Introduction to the Classics of Western Women's Novels"

Huang Di: Thank you Professor Yang! I was very happy when I got this book, because everyone has been looking forward to such a book. I am also a teacher. When I was teaching at NTU, girls often said, "Teacher, can you recommend some classic works suitable for girls to read?" . As of now, this book should be the first book I have seen in China that is launched in the form of a classic introduction to women's novels. Why women’s literature is important? I think this importance is self-evident, because women are half the sky. Since women are half the sky, there must be literature suitable for reading by half the sky.

As Hélène Cixous said, women must write about themselves, and women must write about women.Why do women have to write about women? Because in the long history, women did not have the right to education for a long time. It was a "dark continent". The vast majority of women did not have the right to education. They were in an unenlightened natural state and were naive. Ignorance and lack of enlightenment mean that women do not have the ability to enter society and strive for freedom and independence. So I think the importance of women’s literature is first of all that it calls on women to pick up a pen and write, and to make their voices heard, so that not only women, but actually everyone, can understand the real situation of women in patriarchal society. Professor Yang just talked about "growth". Growth means understanding oneself and achieving oneself after being enlightened. Growth is finally becoming the person you want to be. We can see that all the writers of these classic novels actually experienced a lot of pain and exploration, grew up difficultly, and struggled in the quagmire of family and society. In this unremitting efforts, we see Virginia Wool Her husband became Virginia Woolf, Duras became Duras, Cixous became Cixous, Atwood became Atwood.

Therefore, I think the advantage of the book "Introduction" is that on the one hand, Professor Yang Lixin and Dr. Wang Wei introduce and analyze the classic work itself, on the other hand, it also well integrates the author's own growth process, life and creative trajectory. . It talks about the origin, theme and style of the work, as well as the historical and social environment in which the writer lived and her awakening. At the same time, we also see that the book goes back from the 19th to 20th centuries to the 18th century, starting from the introduction, and then shows how the novel became a mainstream literary genre from the 19th century, and how these writers embarked on the path of literature. How to create these classic works, and how these classic works are passed down from generation to generation of female writers. Inheritance is very important. For example, Professor Yang just said that we often mention Virginia Woolf. You must know that Woolf also has a great influence on contemporary French female writers. Regarding Woolf, Beauvoir talked a lot in "The Second Sex". Annie Ernaux, the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature, her representative work "The Days", the original French name is les années, Translated into English, it actually means the years. As soon as we look at this title, we can see how significant Woolf's influence was on her. Their creative concepts and writing techniques are also very similar. To some extent, they both believe in recording the fragments of daily life and the ordinary years. , in fact, it is as important as the official historical narrative. This is the charm of literature and the power of reaching the truth. In addition, Woolf's "The Years" also precipitates all her previous works to a certain extent, while Ernault's "The Years" also precipitates all her previous works, and is the fusion and sublimation of previous works. So I think this kind of literary inheritance crosses national boundaries to some extent and also crosses classes to some extent.

The only regret I have is that after reading this book, I feel that there are too few French novelists. There is only one Duras who has an independent chapter. Beauvoir has talked about it, and Cixous has also talked about it, but he has not talked about it as a key writer. This also gave me inspiration. I wonder if I can write an introduction to French women’s novels in the future. This is not the first time I have collaborated with Professor Yang. We have previously collaborated on a "Female Genius Series". In this series, Professor Yang wrote about Virginia Woolf and I wrote about Margaret. Duras, but also wrote about other writers, such as Beauvoir, Sontag, Atwood... The series of eight Western female writers-thinkers is also written by eight domestic female scholars. The subtitle of this series of books is Life, Thought and Words: As a force, women can give the current society a new revelation not only in literature, but also in thought and speech. I think this is very important.

Professor Yang asked me how I understand what women’s literature is. I think any work that promotes a dimension of equality between men and women and women’s independence can be called women’s literature.

Yang Lixin: Thank you Professor Huang! Professor Huang talked about her understanding of women’s literature, the French literature that she was familiar with and deeply involved in, especially the connection between French women’s literature and British women’s literature, and also reviewed the achievements of the development of Western women’s literature and its origins. I think it's very well said.

In fact, whether in China or in the West, the tradition of women's literature is very long. However, there are many writers and works that may have sunk beneath the surface of history, and more people have not yet dug deeper to brush them off. The dust teases out the traditions and context. So what we want to do now, and what we hope everyone can do together, is something like this. Professor Huang also said just now that there are many thoughts and accumulations about women's lives in women's literature, as well as interactions with real life, which can provide us with a lot of inspiration. Professor Huang also talked about the concept of female literature. I think many listeners here have an understanding of this concept. Many people may think that works created by female writers are women’s literature, or that literature about women is women’s literature. Isn’t that true? In fact, the two are different. I very much agree with Professor Huang’s understanding of women’s literature. When female writers create, they can also reflect the awareness of gender equality, and reflect a conscious female thinking and female consciousness. Such works may be women's literature in a more accurate sense. There are many such works, including those mentioned in our book. Many works after the 18th century and since the 19th century have nourished us, such as Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and Charlotte B. Lanter's "Jane Eyre", Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights", and many works of the 20th century, for us, they are a very rich spiritual nourishment.

Thanks again Professor Huang! Professor Lu is a senior professor at the School of Foreign Languages of Nanjing Normal University, although he looks very young. Professor Lu has been engaged in British literature research for a long time and is a well-known expert in Woolf research and Scottish literature research in China. We also asked Professor Lu to talk about his understanding of female literature, the meaning and characteristics of female literature, and his long-term experience in writing and researching female literature.

Lu Hongling: Hello readers and friends! I am very honored to have this opportunity to share this book with you at Pioneer Bookstore. When Professor Yang Lixin and Dr. Wang Wei invited me to talk, I agreed without much thought. Why? Because Professor Yang and Dr. Wang Wei and I have an academic sisterhood. Professor Yang is in the School of Liberal Arts at Nanjing Normal University, and I am in the School of Foreign Languages. But we are both engaged in foreign literature research, especially Professor Yang and I are both interested in Woolf was more interested. Of course, Professor Yang has done more in-depth research on Woolf. He has invested a lot in Woolf research over the years and published many research monographs on Woolf, as well as research monographs on related Woolf literary and cultural phenomena. Not only that, I remember that she published an academic monograph "Research on Western Feminist Literary Theory" in 2002. This book promoted our understanding of the development of Western Feminist Literary Theory at the time and was very insightful about the development of Western women's literature. Makes me very teachable. Dr. Wang Wei, another author of our book, is also a colleague of mine. I am very happy to sit next to her today. She is a young backbone teacher at the Secretariat of the Jiangsu Foreign Literature Society. We usually call her "Wei". "Girl", I am very happy that this "Wee Girl" has inherited her mother's legacy, has emerged in the study of women's literature, and has written some insightful articles in the study of Drabble. When they handed me the book, I saw in the book the meaning of mother and daughter joining hands and passing on the firepower of each other. The book contains sophisticated analysis and fresh perspectives, which gave me a lot of reflections on Western women's literature.

I have invested more in Scottish literature over the years, but my previous reading of women’s literature and Woolf have actually been influencing some of my current research. Today I will talk about the "Introduction" Let me talk about my superficial understanding of Western women’s novels.Professor Yang and Professor Huang just talked about the meaning of women's literature and women's novels. In our reading and research of foreign literature, we increasingly regard female writers as a group and pay attention to the artistic power they display. So is women’s novels written by women and writing by women writers considered women’s literature?

These may be questions we constantly ask ourselves during the reading and research process. I think it is yes and no. Strictly speaking, I think women's literature is a grand concept that seems simple but difficult to define. Because just from the perspective of gender, it involves many aspects. For example, our current understanding of gender and the understanding of the variability and fluidity of gender are deeper than before. In the United States, the categories of gender may even be subdivided into There are more than 100 kinds. Our understanding of the differences between people's biological gender, psychological gender, and social gender is deepening, which also brings us confusion in understanding gender. But when understanding women’s literature, I feel that it is not necessary to make such a detailed definition of gender, otherwise we will not be able to talk about women’s literature.

As an ordinary reader, I think women’s literature can be understood in a very broad sense. First of all, as the two professors just mentioned, it is created by female writers based on a common understanding of female identity, and we must also Pay attention to the creations of these female writers, their expression of female consciousness, their concern for women's survival, and even their concern for mankind as a whole. We can observe their writing to see whether their writing can stand the test of time and have profound humanistic value and unique artistic construction. Only in this way can we appreciate more the charm that female literature brings to us. In fact, we also know that it was not easy for many female writers to express their identity as female writers in the past, especially when novels were just emerging in the 18th and 19th centuries. At that time, there were very few female writers, such as the Bronte sisters and Austen. , they all had to conceal their female identities to publish their works.

We still remember that when Emily Bronte published her passionate and poetic novel "Wuthering Heights", she signed it with the masculine name Ellis Bell. At that time, there was a female writer in Scotland named Joanna. Bailey, she also published anonymously at first. For them, if others know their female identity, it will affect the reputation of their works. Joanna Bailey had this experience: when people knew that the work was written by her and written by a female writer, they were very surprised and felt that women were incapable of creating such works. Therefore, the gender bias against women’s literature was still very obvious in the past.

Nowadays, the general environment is relatively more relaxed, but many female writers may not be willing to be narrowly positioned as female writers, or female writers are not willing to accept the title of feminist writer, even Woolf herself, she I also rejected the title of feminist writer. It’s just that I feel that in the current environment where male and female are used as the basic means of distinguishing human identity, it is easier for us to classify writers as a group, and we may be able to explore some of their similarities or common characteristics. In fact, I think for them, what they care about is not their gender, or whether they are female or male writers. What they care about is their identity as writers. They want readers to see their literary talent and artistic character. Of course, this does not prevent many female writers from emphasizing their gender identity and writing from a conscious gender perspective to challenge traditional patriarchal writing.

Professor Huang Xing once had an interview with Ernault, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I have read your interview. Ernault said that her writing was revenge for her identity and gender. The female consciousness here is very strong. But she also said that the significance of her writing lies in "going deep into reality, female representation and historical reality." Similar to female writers like Ernault, many female writers are willing to use women as objects of description and are also willing to integrate their own experiences into novel creation.For example, in Plath's "The Bell Jar" in the "Introduction", she embedded a lot of her own struggles in the heroine Esther between being trapped in family affairs, being a wife, a mother, and a talented artist. These writers go deep into the creation of collective experiences through personal experiences. They talk about women personally and the gender domination that women suffer. At the same time, they are also connected with social class, race, and national consciousness. Therefore, I think that even though female writers will particularly highlight their concerns about gender and women’s writing, they will also pay attention to the “capitalized person”, the reflection of human nature, and the integration of multiple themes.

Professor Yang and Dr. Wang well presented this pursuit of female writers in the "Introduction", allowing us to clearly see that the gender perspective is one perspective of female writers' writing, but it is not all of them. There are profound entanglements of different themes in their works, which shows the charm of their artistic creation. For example, the "Introduction" introduces and interprets Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein". This is the first European science fiction novel, and the "Introduction" also reveals the dystopian spirit in this novel. This novel is a modern Promethean tragedy. It writes about the contradiction between technology and human relations. It also talks about love and marriage, and reflects "who am I, where do I come from, and where do I go?" "Go" to some basic philosophical questions. These complex and profound themes are contained in the novel itself. In the book, our two scholars have presented these themes to us very well. I think this is very desirable and very valuable. Let's take another example in the book - Toni Morrison's "Sula". The book talks about her construction of multiple themes - the theme of black suffering, as well as her understanding of life and the darkness of human nature, and also There is a deep sense of sisterhood. The two scholars' detailed analysis allows us to deeply understand the richness of women's writing and the profoundness of the themes of women's writing.

From their descriptions, we can see that the path for women's writing is getting wider and wider, and it is more international. They mentioned that Showalter revised some of his previous views in the later period, and mentioned that the creative background of modern female writers spans national and cultural boundaries and is becoming more and more international. This is indeed the case. In the book, they also talked about Drabble's "The Red Princess", saying that this novel depicts modern British women and ancient Korean women, their travels in different eras, this kind of communication journey across time and Eastern and Western cultures. . The "Introduction" has done a good job in revealing these creative characteristics. In the process of internationalization and diversification of women's writing, women's writing has also continuously shown the vitality of inheritance, subversion and innovation. The "Introduction" also mentioned a relatively common phenomenon that deserves reflection: many female writers, such as the Brontë sisters, Jane, George Eliot, and Kate Chopin, may not have received much attention when their works were first published. , the evaluation is not very high, but after the washing of time and years, and the continuous development and transformation of critical discourse, their creations are gradually recognized by people and gradually become classics. The combination of a feminist perspective and various theoretical criticisms, such as postcolonialism, ecocriticism, space theory and other theories, has also expanded our horizons in viewing their creations.

"Introduction" repeatedly mentioned two feminist critics - Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar's "The Madwoman in the Attic: Women Writers and 19 Century Literary Imagination", and Showalter's "Literatures of Their Own". The two scholars in this book apply their critical words to the analysis of the text. For example, in the introduction to "Jane Eyre", they talked about the feminist interpretation of Gilbert and Cuba, allowing us to see how there may be a collusion between Jane Eyre and the mad woman in the attic; and then Mentioning Foucault's understanding of madness through power discourse allows us to understand the relationship of complicity at a deeper level. The conscious use of critical discourse without overuse of theory makes the Introduction highly readable.

Not only that, when the "Introduction" talked about "Jane Eyre", it also talked about the inspiration of this novel to the creation of future generations. It also talked about Jane Rhys's creation of Antoinette in "Jane Eyre". It was Rochester's ex-wife Bertha who wrote "The Sea of Algae" as the protagonist, which is another classic work of female literature. From this, we can also derive many other characteristics of women’s writing: women’s writing is good at drawing on existing classics, questioning classic literature, showing intertextuality in classic works, inheriting and inheriting classic works of male and female writers, It is very interesting to learn from and develop, the female writers learn from and rewrite each other, and the inheritance, influence and evaluation between them. For example, Woolf, Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and George Eliot are called by Showalter as the four pinnacle figures in feminist literature, among which Woolf is The comments made by these senior female writers are very interesting. The inheritance relationship and mutual learning and development relationship between female literary writers are also reflected in great detail in this "Introduction".

Yang Lixin: Thank you Professor Lu! Professor Lu shared his understanding of female literature, which benefited us a lot. She talked about the richness of the connotation and themes of women's literature. She cited the subjects of her research - Scottish female writers and many other female writers. The female consciousness in their works is very prominent, conscious and distinct. This situation is also common among contemporary Chinese female writers. For example, since the 1990s, when Chinese female literary writing was active, writers such as Lin Bai and Chen Ran also had a distinct sense of female consciousness in their creations. There are also other writers who may prefer to be called writers rather than women writers. I think the possible underlying reason is that society or some people may have a prejudice that calling or defining a woman in literature lowers her artistic standards. Therefore, these female writers are more willing to confirm their literary status as writers. Ding Ling during the May 4th Movement once made it very clear that I was selling literature, not women's writing. I guess it was probably because of this motive. She preferred others to recognize her as a serious writer. Professor Lu talked about the different forms of women’s literature, and Professor Huang also talked about some anonymous or pseudonymous writings by women in history. These are actually the result of the critical dilemma that women’s literature may have suffered unequal treatment in history. We I hope there will be a better cultural environment in the future.

Professor Lu talked about many themes in women’s literature. If we are familiar with Chinese and foreign women’s literary creation, we will find that many themes are similar, and this similarity is actually closely related to our lives. Many female writers, especially early female writers, have obvious autobiographical or biographical elements in their creations, such as exploring the true meaning of love, the essence of marriage, and whether a woman will go into public society with her once she enters love or marriage. There are contradictions between using space to obtain social identity, whether women can reveal their true desires, including psychological desires and physical desires, women entering the workplace, how to obtain the same fair evaluation based on their own performance rather than gender identity, etc. , these are social issues that everyone pays attention to, and they are also important themes expressed in female literature.

The second theme of this sharing activity is "women's growth." Since the 19th century, many Western female writers, such as the familiar Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and George Eliot, as well as Sylvia Plath in the 20th century, have focused on Explore issues in women's growth, such as how to achieve personality equality and spiritual communication between men and women, what is the true meaning of love and marriage, the relationship between women's love and marriage and the realization of self-worth, and what difficulties women need to overcome when moving into public social spaces. ,etc. These are also issues that Chinese women need to face and think about today. It can be said that women's literature records the spiritual development of women over hundreds of years and gives readers inspiration and strength.The doctoral thesis of Wang Wei, one of the authors of this book, is centered around the novel creation of Margaret Drabble, a famous contemporary British female writer, and explores the theme of women's spiritual growth. We asked Teacher Wang to use Drabble as an example to talk about the aspects in which Drabble's creations can provide spiritual inspiration and reference for us today.

Wang Wei: Hello listeners! Regarding "their" literature, the three professors have made a very precise analysis and macro summary. I will supplement it with a little bit of my own research and hope that everyone will criticize and correct it. Margaret Drabble is a famous contemporary British writer and the sister of A.S. Byatt, the author of "Possession". She began her literary creation in the mid-20th century. Fortunately, she became an instant hit with her debut novel "The Birdcage in Summer," and she quickly entered the field of literary criticism and critics. Why are her works so popular among readers? For more than half a century, she has written nearly 20 novels, which are often sought after by critics and favored by the market and literary awards. I will share some with you based on her writing and concepts. Personally, I think her novel writing is very distinctive, which is specifically reflected in the following three aspects: First, her gendered writing. Although in author interviews and critics' evaluations, many writers hope to be seen as a writer first, rather than a female writer, this is also reflected in Drabble. Because she studied under Leavis in her early days and because of her gendered writing characteristics, she was commented by scholars such as Showalter as a typical feminist writer and realist writer. However, the writer herself hoped not to label her as such in interviews. Label. In fact, in her writing, she presented gender experiences, such as issues related to marriage, from the perspective of a woman as a writer. Her debut novel is because she has been married since graduating from Cambridge, has her own children, and has some observations as a person and as a woman, so she hopes to share some. In the past, many women, whether in China or abroad, were absolutely unwilling to share private matters, even with fellow women, let alone men, such as how you entered into marriage and how you waited for your groom to pick you up. The day when you gave birth to your first child, these very private experiences were all shared in her novel, and she received some unkind comments, but the writer shared them sincerely. I just hope to establish such a "sisterhood" (sisterhood, women's group), and hope that women can think of this as a normal thing, accept their physical changes, accept their psychological changes, and accept their identity changes. In "Summer Birdcage" and her third work "Tried: Narratives of an Unmarried Mother", she touched on many of her personal experiences. For example, the heroine Sarah in "Summer Birdcage" wants to return to China to be a bridesmaid; Accompanying her sister, who is about to join a wealthy family, to get married and start a family, the writer describes her psychology in detail.

The second is her spatial writing feature. At present, many critics have theoretically analyzed the fragmented hybrid space. In Drabble's writing, because of her own academic and creative background, many characters in the novel have certain similarities with the writer, so the writer's writing is highly self-referential. She writes about how a female college student finds her own house, builds her own independent space, chooses her boyfriend, and raises her children after graduation. Rosamond, the heroine of "The Grind," is not married, but she hopes to have a child of her own after an unexpected pregnancy. In the social background of the time, she even had to avoid being pursued by her family to avoid bringing shame on the family's reputation, and she also had to create her identity as a successful female doctor and teacher in society, so she created many unique physical and psychological spaces, including The delivery room where she was about to give birth, the waiting room where she took her baby to the hospital, etc., as well as the elderly woman Candida who appeared in her later writings, lived alone in a small attic after divorce, or the housewife spent every day in the kitchen or small garden. life there.

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"Introduction to the Classics of Western Women's Novels"

Finally is her social writing. As several teachers just mentioned, a female writer does not want to sell the word "female". She is a writer and a serious literary worker. Her writing should not only talk about women's issues, nor should it be all about women. Developed from a female perspective, she also paid attention to social issues, so she could become a successful writer and a writer accepted by both male and female readers. Her writing presents many social problems, including economic depression, mid-life crisis, and especially the aging problem. She asks how the elderly accept themselves in life. They are no longer the pillar and mainstream, and are no longer needed so much, but she needs herself. , how to take care of yourself and accept changes in life, which also reflects many changes in times and concepts. In the mid-to-late 20th century, British society underwent many changes, including major changes in education, elections, economic growth, employment and even social structure. These issues are also reflected in her novels, such as her Her mid-term works "Ice Age" and "Middle Age" all reflect her concern for social issues. So I think Drabble's novels are women's literature, and they are also human literature - life novels.

Yang Lixin: Thank you Dr. Wang Wei! Her doctoral thesis studied contemporary British female writers, so she combined the writer's specific works and analyzed the writer's creative characteristics from three levels, which was very enlightening. Professor Huang Xing just mentioned Simone de Beauvoir. In the history of Chinese women’s literature and culture research in the 20th century, the French writer Simone de Beauvoir is an indispensable presence. The history of women at the center of patriarchy In culture, "the second sex" and "women are not born, but formed", etc. These familiar views or expressions all come from Beauvoir. Professor Huang has a deep appreciation for Beauvoir, including Margaret Duras, a writer who is also a favorite of many of our book friends, teachers, and classmates here, especially the popular movie "The Lover" in the 1990s. Many people have read it, including the novel of the same name by Duras, and have done in-depth research on it. We asked Professor Huang to tell us about his understanding and research experience of these two writers.

黄荭： Before talking about Beauvoir and Duras, I would like to go back and talk about George Sand in the 19th century. As Professor Lu Hongling said, due to the early society's disapproval of women's writing and the belief that women's writing was a shameful thing, this was actually the case in France in the 19th century. There are far-reaching historical reasons for this, which can be seen from the French language. French words are divided into masculine and feminine. For example, professional expressions in French reflect deep sexism. For example, the writer écrivain, or the author auteur, only There are masculine nouns and no feminine nouns. Professor professor, doctor médecin, painter paintre, chairman président, etc. all have masculine nouns and no feminine forms. However, with the progress of the times, language is gradually becoming sexist, and these words have begun to have For example, the writer écrivain appears, écrivaine appears, the writer auteur, and now there is also auteure, which is to add a vowel letter e at the end to make it a feminine noun. To some extent, women not only need a room of their own, but also need to get out of the room and go into society like men. In a long history, women have been locked in their own rooms, locked in "home", and she has no chance to go out at all, so this is why Woolf said when commenting on Jane Austen's writing She always writes about boudoir life, and she can only write such boudoir-style themes about the love between men and women, but she also writes about the joys and sorrows of life and the ups and downs in this small subject matter. Whether it is "Pride and Prejudice" or "Sense and Sensibility", until now, these keywords are still important dimensions in our thinking when facing society and love.The same goes for George Sand. She gave herself a masculine pen name, George. She wrote columns for newspapers like a man, regarded writing as a career, and achieved her own financial independence through writing. In real life, she has a very strong sense of equality between men and women. For example, she can wear pants. It used to be unconventional for women to wear pants. She can ride horses and smoke hookah. In a sense, women's struggle for freedom, even freedom of dress, freedom of thought, and freedom of writing, has gone through a long period of time. Moreover, this kind of right needs to be fought for and is not given to women at the beginning. During the French Revolution, in addition to the "Declaration of Human Rights", there was actually a less well-known "Declaration of Women's Rights". Women should have the same rights as men, but these rights are not given to women and need to be fought for by women themselves. can be obtained. We have always thought that France is a society of freedom, equality and fraternity, and that women have a high status. In fact, looking at history, French women only had the right to vote and elect in 1945, and only in 1965 did married women be able to engage in professional work without the consent of their husbands. It was not until 1967 that the law allowed women to use contraception. It was not until the French Constitutional Council approved the Veil Act in 1975 that women had the right to have an abortion. Before that, abortion was illegal. Women who were raped and became pregnant were not allowed to have abortions. This caused extremely great physical and mental damage to the female victims and caused great controversy in society. On April 5, 1971, under the organization of Beauvoir, 343 French women jointly published "Our wombs belong to us" or the "343 Manifesto" in the "Nouveau Observateur" magazine. In their manifesto, they openly admitted that they had had abortions and challenged conservative laws and morals by declaring themselves illegal. Maybe they didn't actually have abortions, but in order to support women's autonomy over their own bodies, whether it was the Beauvoir sisters or Duras, many well-known French women at the time participated in signing the bill, so that it was finally passed in 1975. The Wye Act was a great step forward for women's freedom.

George Sand's writings have a strong female consciousness, but in addition to female consciousness, she also has pastoral, social and political themes, so we can see that once a woman leaves home, her world will become wider and wider. In the 20th century, like Beauvoir, it can be said that she is a writer and thinker who uses herself as a method. She is very concerned about her own growth. She has a diary from the age of 18 to 24 - "Notes of Youth" (1926- 1930), this book will soon be translated and published in China. In the diary, we can see more clearly how Beauvoir became Beauvoir, who was always good, when she had a childhood sweetheart, her cousin Jacques, and when she herself faced the pitfalls of a possible marriage. Thoughts were made. She said that what she wanted was of no use to Jacques, but she could not sacrifice it for him, so we can see the budding, awakening of her female consciousness, and ultimately her choice of Sartre. Her entire mental journey is actually the growth process of a feminist. This is why Beauvoir’s adopted daughter would say that Beauvoir did not become Beauvoir because he chose Sartre, but that she chose Sartre because Beauvoir became Beauvoir. Among French writers in the 20th century, there was another important female writer before Beauvoir, and one of my favorite writers, Colette. She started out as a country girl and later followed her husband to Paris. Her husband is a journalist, music critic, and novelist. He felt that Colette was quite good at writing, so he took advantage of his wife's writing skills and asked her to write about her childhood experiences. Colette then wrote the "Claudine" series. Colette then became her husband's ghostwriter and "ghostwriter" for his writing. When the book was published, she signed it only with her husband's name "Willy". It was not until after the divorce that she used her surname Colette as a pen name to publish her works.We can see that the "Claudine" series is actually Colette's growth process. There are also translations in China. Interested readers can read it. The first three parts are "Claudine at School" and "Claudine". "Tina in Paris", "Claudine After Marriage", and then "Claudine Goes Away", just like Nora running away, it is the awakening of women, using this decisive gesture of running away to run towards her freedom , running towards her independence. Like many writers, her works are actually a portrayal of her life. After leaving her husband, she devoted herself to cabaret performances. She once performed at the Moulin Rouge, which once became a social scandal. There were also many stories of her love affairs, which were controversial, but in the end she became a judge of the Goncourt Literary Prize and later became its president. When she died in 1954, the church refused to give her a religious funeral because of her divorce and her bold and outrageous behavior. However, France held a state funeral for her, and it was the first time a state funeral was held for a woman. Her whole life is actually a life of counterattack, a journey towards freedom, becoming herself and achieving herself. Beauvoir and Duras are the same. They were both controversial women for a period of time, but in the end they became classic and handed down writers. I think this is the meaning of "becoming".

Yang Lixin: Thank you Professor Huang! Just now, Professor Huang gave examples of several French female writers she is familiar with and has deep experience in, and talked about how to become an excellent woman and an excellent writer. It was very exciting. In the history of the development of the Chinese women's movement, the history of women's struggle for equal rights and the history of women's literature and culture research over the past century, there is another famous name that cannot be avoided, which is the British writer Virginia Woolf that we have just mentioned repeatedly. Two of her Cambridge lectures were later compiled into a famous pamphlet, A Room of One's Own. In the book, she said that if a woman wants to become a writer, she must have 500 pounds a year and a room of her own. This statement was extended by later generations to mean that if a woman wants to become a writer, she must first have independent financial ability. At the same time, you must have an independent spiritual space of your own. This perspective has inspired generations of women to pursue economic independence, ideological and personality independence. Professor Huang also mentioned that Woolf also said that it is good to have a room of your own, but it may actually be worse if you are locked in this room without leaving the house. Therefore, we also hope that women can have rich social experience and a broad cultural vision. The "androgyny" mentioned by Woolf means that the two sexes are not antagonistic or confrontational, but mutual respect, tolerance, harmony and cooperation. This provides inspiration for us to look at the relationship between the sexes. As an expert on Woolf, we also asked Professor Lu to talk about it.

Lu Hongling: Woolf advocates the attitude of ordinary readers. As an ordinary reader, I am still far from the realm she requires, so I will talk about my sporadic feelings. We all know that Woolf has established a very classic status in Western women's literature and women's literary criticism, but in fact her image and status have also been subject to a lot of controversy. I remember Shakespeare wrote a line in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". He said that madmen, lovers and poets are all children of fantasy. I think Woolf is also such a child of fantasy. Who is Woolf? In people's comments or stories, some people will dismissively call her a weirdo, a Bloomsbury madwoman, a lesbian, a madman. Some people are dissatisfied with her radical feminist ideas and even jokingly alluded to her name (woolf) as a wolf (wolf). Others wrote "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", and the title alluded to Woolf's Feminist status. Woolf is also regarded as the pioneer of feminism, the originator of new prose, and the master of stream-of-consciousness novels. People say that if there is a classic female writer who can rival Shakespeare and appear at the same time, it must be Woolf. Even Harold Bloom, a critic of feminist criticism, in "The Western Canon: Great Writers and Immortal Works" regarded Woolf as an apocalyptic aesthete like Pater and Nietzsche.Woolf always exists in our minds with such a contradictory and controversial image. I think Woolf herself would also laugh at this. Why? Woolf created many works. She always liked to say in her diary: I am 20 people, and I have so many versions of myself.

In literary creation, she uses her own way to express or improve her diverse selves. Woolf wrote about 30 short stories, 4 volumes of essays, nearly 4,000 letters, and 30 volumes of diaries. No matter what kind of literary creation, she devoted herself to it, and she seemed to create with a kind of fanaticism. , pursues the diversification of themes and styles with a very persistent innovative spirit. She is often mentally tortured and troubled by mental disorders, but I think for her, this kind of trouble is sometimes a source of literary inspiration, constantly prompting her to capture the moments of life that she advocates describing. In the so-called era of rampant violence and promotion of rationality at the beginning of the 20th century, Virginia Woolf reminded us of the importance of emotion and the importance of feeling. She took the lead in writing stream-of-consciousness novels and penetrated deeply into the hearts of the characters. I think everyone also remembers the short work "The Spot on the Wall". The narrator sees a spot on the wall, and this spot generates a series of associations, including Shakespeare, antiquities collectors, and many, many more... ...Finally I found out it was a small snail. This kind of flow of consciousness was more perfectly expressed in her later novels "To the Lighthouse", "Mrs. Dalloway" and "The Waves". She was determined to innovate, and later wrote the essay-style novel "Years", the new biographical novel "Orlando", as well as the biography of Mrs. Browning's love from the perspective of a puppy, "Fresh", and "Roger... Frye" and so on, the styles of the works are very different. In her last work "Interlude", she tried to integrate various previous literary experiments and techniques to reach a new creative realm. Therefore, Woolf has been in the process of constantly seeking new ideas and describing people and women in depth.

Her thoughts about women and women's writing are more concentratedly reflected in her prose. According to some statistics, about 40% of her prose may be comments about female writers and female writing. For example, she wrote in "A Room" "My Own Room", "Women and Novel", and "Three Guineas" put forward some concepts that we are very familiar with - "kill the angel in the room", "female sentences", "androgyny", etc. These concepts are constantly being used Mentioned, influenced a large number of writers and critics. It can be said that our current controversies or theories on women's writing are all based on her views. But when she talks about these concepts, her views are also contradictory. We all know how she came up with the concept of "androgyny": the narrator saw a young man and woman walking into a taxi on the street, and thought it was a very harmonious picture. From this, she advanced layer by layer, thinking that if the writer has The androgynous state, in which the forces of both sexes can live harmoniously together in their minds and cooperate spiritually, is a very ideal state, and it is possible to create great works. Therefore, "if any conscious, as a woman It's devastating." She proposed the idea of "androgyny" in "A Room of One's Own", but if you read it carefully, you will see that she proposed "female sentences" in the sections before this idea: Female writers must "write like a woman". Female writers must have their own way of expression and use sentences suitable for women to write. The most important thing for women is to become themselves, so the difference between "female sentences" and "androgyny" There is an obvious contradiction: on the one hand, she uses "women's sentences" to emphasize the importance of female consciousness; on the other hand, in "androgyny", she seems to use this concept to oppose the over-exaggeration of female consciousness. I think this is also a characteristic of her writing and thinking. Whether it is "androgyny" or "female sentences", she presents contradictory views to us and makes us think. Excellent works and excellent thoughts will always be Let people think further.This is also true. Based on the concepts she proposed, later female literary critics also had different views on "androgyny" and their understanding of Woolf. Showalter wrote a chapter on "Virginia Woolf and the Escape into Androgyny" in "A Literature of Their Own". In her interpretation, contrary to our understanding of Woolf, she believed that "androgyny" "One body" does not express Woolf's feminist stance, but is a means for Woolf to escape reality, suppress anger, and tend to please men. She believes that in the concept of "androgyny", some expressions are more influenced by patriarchal ideas. This phenomenon also allows us to see that Woolf's thoughts are full of dialogue and explorability. The teachers just mentioned repeatedly that Woolf proposed that women should have a house of their own and 500 pounds a year, emphasizing women's economic independence and emphasizing that women should have free space. This is very meaningful for women's studies. of. With the change of critical discourse and the continuous development of social consciousness, everyone is also thinking about what kind of room this room will be. Is it an isolated space, a free and open space, or a depressive space? The female writer's is even, as Showalter said, a kind of female writer's grave, or a cradle that can produce more of Woolf's imaginary Shakespeare's sister. These views of hers, whether "a room of one's own" or "androgyny", bring us deeper and more complex discussions about women and women's writing.

Showalter said that Woolf suppressed her anger and tended to please men. In fact, anger and emotion are also a profound basis for Woolf's thinking in female writing, and emotion is an important basis for her female writing. Why does she admire Austen? Austen has the ability to see the big from the small. She said that Austen seems to be describing very small things, but it can make us feel the deep meaning behind them. In other words, Austen can transform personal emotions into become the driving force for creation. In Woolf's interpretation, she believes that Austen overcame the negative effects of anger because anger is not an emotion conducive to female creation. Perhaps due to social ideology and other reasons, female writers' creations are inevitably related to personal emotions, but in Woolf's view, if anger fills the work, it may affect the artistry of the work and even cost the artist's life. . When interpreting Charlotte's "Jane Eyre", she discovered this quality of anger and said unceremoniously: "When she should have written calmly, she wrote in rage. In addition to being suppressed and frustrated, , died young, so what?” Woolf always advocated that literature is not the form you see, but the emotion you feel, which I fully agree with. Another example is when she talked about "Wuthering Heights". She admired Emily Bronte and believed that her novels not only express love and hate, but also the entire human race, reflecting the powers lurking under the surface of human nature. I think this power of effectively managing anger is also what makes women’s novels classics. Woolf also proposed the concept of "integrity" in this regard, believing that writers must maintain a neutral attitude. Integrity is a quality that determines whether a work can gain eternal vitality, and its core lies in truth. Woolf has a lot to say about materialistic reality and spiritualistic reality, and "neutralization" also revolves around "reality". It comes from the belief in reality and a good perception of reality, so that we can better deal with some intensely personal emotions such as anger, so that creation can gain authenticity, real power and permanent vitality, which in a certain way To a certain extent, it is consistent with her "androgyny" thinking. Woolf’s understanding of emotion in women’s writing, I think, is still of great practical significance to women’s writing today who seem to have more writing space.

Woolf occupies a classic position in terms of feminism and female writing. Her own image and cultural significance have been continuously interpreted and reconstructed by future generations, forming an intertextual relationship with the works of other writers, especially later generations of writers. . Woolf advocates looking back through her mother. In a sense, she has become a maternal presence in modern women's writing.For example, many British and American writers now use Woolf's name, Woolf's image, and Woolf's thoughts in their creations. Whether they agree or deny it, Woolf's connotation already exists in the creations of other writers. Byatt regards Woolf as a "useful cultural icon". She directly or indirectly uses Woolf's ideas and images in several novels, especially using her to express women's psychology. experience. We are more familiar with Michael Cunningham, who borrowed Woolf's image in the novel "The Hours" - made into a movie many years ago, starring Roberts as Woolf - and borrowed Woolf's " Mrs. Dalloway" and its character Clarissa, create three female images in the novel to think about modern women's existential anxiety and identity pursuit. Woolf continues to appear in such works. The Chinese-American writer Tang Tingting has a character transgender plot in "The Tang Dynasty", which is also influenced by Woolf's "Orlando" and reflects the idea of "androgyny". There is another writer worth mentioning - Jeanette Winterson, who wrote a flamboyant novel "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" and later wrote "The Lighthouse", which also used Wool's Her husband's "To the Lighthouse" serves as her pretext. Janet Winterson also claimed to be Woolf's true successor. Woolf continues to appear in the creations of these writers. Her influence is international and exists in Britain, the United States, France, and other countries. Domestic female writers, including male writers, have also been influenced by her to a greater or lesser extent. For example, Ling Shuhua, a female writer from the Republic of China who wrote "Ancient Rhythm", had direct correspondence with Woolf and was somewhat influenced by her novel creation. Contemporary writers Chen Ran and Zhao Mei can also find Woolf's figure in their creations. In Chen Ran's "Private Life", the "spots on the wall" turned into ink marks, writing "The Women of Our Family" Zhao Mei of "To the Lighthouse" and "Waves" have also been mentioned from time to time. Woolf has a profound and extensive influence on Eastern and Western women's writing. As one of the most important and influential female writers, the feelings that Woolf’s literary creations and thoughts bring to us can perhaps be represented by Pound’s feelings about classics: if certain works become treasures and foundations, Once you read it, it will benefit you for life. I think Woolf is such a guarantee and foundation. If Woolf is a child of fantasy and a madman, she is even more a thinker and artist with madman temperament.

Yang Lixin: Thank you Professor Lu! Professor Lu's speech was very informative. He talked about Woolf's creative achievements, the views in "A Room of One's Own", including the inherent contradiction or openness of the expression "androgyny", and Woolf's views on the world. The creative influence of writers from various countries, including Chinese writers, has given us a lot to gain.

Last question, I would like to ask Teacher Wang to talk about it again. Margaret Drabble is known as a writer who is particularly good at writing about "maternal love". In her writing, "maternal love" is not an obstacle to women's career development as people often understand, that is, a mother makes self-sacrifice for her children. Instead, she writes that motherhood enables young women to have a richer life experience, and more Understand the true meaning of life, and become more mature in the relationship between mother and son, mother and daughter, reborn, and become a strong and beautiful self. The power of motherhood has become an important support for women to better realize themselves and reach a new level in career development. As a new mother, Teacher Wang’s personal life experience may give her a deeper understanding of her research subjects and the themes of motherhood and maternal love in literature. Please talk about your feelings on this.

Wang Wei: Thank you, Teacher Yang! As mentioned before, Drabble is a very self-referential writer. Her writing is eloquent, very delicate, highly readable, and a true expression of women's emotions and thoughts. . Critic Showalter evaluated her as a "women's novelist" based on her initial creation, but in fact her creative career was very long, and her writing was a process of development.For example, her third novel "The Millstone" (The Millstone) writes about a female doctoral student who had her own child. How she obtained spiritual comfort from her child, which supported her in completing her heavy doctoral thesis and winning I got a decent teaching position and started a new chapter of life full of hope. Drabble talked about the power of motherhood, which is not a hindrance, but promotes women to grow into a person with depth and thickness, showing the spiritual power of motherhood. Her fourth novel "Golden Jerusalem" also mentions an important mother-daughter relationship. The protagonist Clara Maugham is a little girl from Yorktown. Her mother comes from a Puritan family and lost her father when she was young. , the family is difficult. She has felt that her mother is a very mean, very cold, and very harsh image to her since she was a child. Her dream as a girl has always been to escape from her hometown and her mother, and go to London to find the holy city in her heart-Jerusalem. ; And she did realize this pursuit through the government scholarship she received because of her excellent academic performance. At the end of the novel, because her mother was seriously ill and emotionally frustrated, she was forced to return to her hometown to take care of her mother. In her letters, she discovered that her mother was once as high-spirited, young and beautiful, full of ideals, and could create, but the social reality at the time did not Opportunities for mothers to enter society and realize their ambitions. She has been depressed in her family life for many years. The misfortune of her family and the embarrassment of her life have gradually turned her into a gloomy image. In the end, Clara achieved reconciliation with her mother, and she also achieved reconciliation with herself. This is an early novel written by Drabble, when she was a young girl, so she had such a psychological state.

When she became a senior writer, she created a motherly, older heroine in the novel "Seven Sisters" (Chinese translation of "The Empty Bed Diary") written in her later years. Through fragmented diaries and travels, Candida, who lived alone after divorce, sorted out how she was forced to withdraw from the family step by step - her husband had another love, her children have grown up, they have obtained their own jobs and have a family. Without her own little home, she can only communicate and gain social interaction with her female companions of the same age. Gradually, with the encouragement of her "pilgrimage" trip and her female companions, she plucked up the courage to regain contact and affectionate communication with her daughter. As a mother, she achieved a kind of reconciliation with her daughter. At this time, the writer refers to the image of his mother. In this process, the writer's own growth in literature and thought is also reflected. What is very important is that she has achieved reconciliation with her family, herself, and life. Therefore, the female image in the writings of female writers may also gain a kind of growth as the writer's own identity and psychological state change.

The same goes for George Sand. She gave herself a masculine pen name, George. She wrote columns for newspapers like a man, regarded writing as a career, and achieved her own financial independence through writing. In real life, she has a very strong sense of equality between men and women. For example, she can wear pants. It used to be unconventional for women to wear pants. She can ride horses and smoke hookah. In a sense, women's struggle for freedom, even freedom of dress, freedom of thought, and freedom of writing, has gone through a long period of time. Moreover, this kind of right needs to be fought for and is not given to women at the beginning. During the French Revolution, in addition to the "Declaration of Human Rights", there was actually a less well-known "Declaration of Women's Rights". Women should have the same rights as men, but these rights are not given to women and need to be fought for by women themselves. can be obtained. We have always thought that France is a society of freedom, equality and fraternity, and that women have a high status. In fact, looking at history, French women only had the right to vote and elect in 1945, and only in 1965 did married women be able to engage in professional work without the consent of their husbands. It was not until 1967 that the law allowed women to use contraception. It was not until the French Constitutional Council approved the Veil Act in 1975 that women had the right to have an abortion. Before that, abortion was illegal. Women who were raped and became pregnant were not allowed to have abortions. This caused extremely great physical and mental damage to the female victims and caused great controversy in society. On April 5, 1971, under the organization of Beauvoir, 343 French women jointly published "Our wombs belong to us" or the "343 Manifesto" in the "Nouveau Observateur" magazine. In their manifesto, they openly admitted that they had had abortions and challenged conservative laws and morals by declaring themselves illegal. Maybe they didn't actually have abortions, but in order to support women's autonomy over their own bodies, whether it was the Beauvoir sisters or Duras, many well-known French women at the time participated in signing the bill, so that it was finally passed in 1975. The Wye Act was a great step forward for women's freedom.

Video about On June 2, the two authors of "A Classic Introduction to Western Women's Novels" - Professor Yang Lixin from the School of Liberal Arts of Nanjing Normal University and Lecturer Wang Wei from the School of Foreign Languages of Nanjing Normal University, together with Professor

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