The Woman Who Walked Out of the Tower: Split Consciousness in Late 20th Century Chinese Women's Literature

Author: Tian Ni
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: This book conducts a comprehensive and detailed examination of the split consciousness in the texts of Chinese female writers in the late 20th century and explores and organizes related issues of female survival. The author examines the origins of female split consciousness, traces its evolution and manifestations, namely the intergrowth, existence, and internal transformation of female masculinization consciousness, gender consciousness, and self-examination consciousness. Subsequently, it analyzes the psychological state of female split consciousness, clarifying that it is accompanied by a process full of contradictions and tensions, involving conflicts between rationality and irrationality, as well as confusion and bewilderment. Therefore, it inevitably leads to psychological forms such as narcissism, self-complaint, self-abuse, and self-reflection. At the same time, it elucidates that during the writing process, female split consciousness creates tension, there is a deviation between bodily experience and thought, and identity recognition conceals female stance. On this basis, it discusses the possibilities and pitfalls of female writers' paths toward reconciliation in the face of split consciousness, as well as evaluates their efforts and attempts, with the main purpose of raising questions and exploring solutions. Finally, it summarizes the cultural and realistic significance of split consciousness in female literature: as a literary phenomenon and cultural fact, as a process of fragmentation and proliferation, it will provide important references for the development of female literature and the growth of women themselves.