The Search For The Spirit, And Survival To Break Out

This dissertation aims to explore the"feminine self"in"individual existence". From the perspectives of existential philosophy, humanistic psychology, psycho-analysis and feminist criticism, this dissertation seeks a systematic exploration and explanation for the"feminine self"in the autobiographic works produced by Chinese-European/American authoresses, putting forward such concepts as"feminine autobiography"and"existential value of famine individuals". It tries to build up a comprehensive framework for the criticism analysis of"feminine self"in the autobiographies by Chinese-European/American authoresses and attempts to give adequate definitions and explanations for some relevant phenomena.Since 1980s, the autobiographic works produced by Chinese-European/American authoresses have won lots of praise abroad and gained great popularity in China. The difference between this genre of literature and the works produced by Chinese male immigrants, and the autobiography in China, and the female literature lies in its special perspectives and writing techniques composed of the factors such as cross-ethnical and cross-cultural identity and gender. It is of great academic significance to investigate the particularity of the autobiographic works produced by Chinese-European/American authoresses. However, in spite of the enriched research on Chinese authoresses, it is still lack of thorough recognition and logical generalization. A key reason for the lack of such type of research is the limitation of languages and the communication of texts. Another reason is critics'doubt about the literary characteristics and the cultural positions reflected in these works. Many arguments centre on the questions if the texts written in western languages tend to satisfy western readers'"oriental"imaginations and if the texts written in Chinese commend the authoresses'own western experience subjectively. However, there is little profound research on the thematic significance and the artistic characteristics in these works. This dissertation involves lots of original comments on the autobiographic works from multiple perspectives of standard survival, life significance, spiritual construction and aesthetic feature. Through detailed analysis of the texts, the writer has found that the authoresses'main creative motivation is to explore female individuals'self-identity from the humanistic viewpoint. The evaluation of these literature works can serve to break through traditional criticism models of ideology such as ethnic, politics and ethics. From the perspectives of female individuals'survival breakthrough and spiritual pursuit, this dissertation attempts to make thorough exploration for this genre of texts and to reveal the authoresses'creative motivation and the objective significance in their texts from the following aspects.First, the authoresses focus on the"self"which is based on the existential significance of individuals. Second, the authoresses focus on the"feminine self"from the perspective of gender, emphasizing females'desire and spiritual pursuit which are concealed in ethnical politics, family interest and collective society. Third, the authoresses stress the philosophical inquiry for the"self". They agree on the value of life tragedy in existentialism, and try to describe how characters can reach to the"existential feeling"of"true self". The dissertation will reveal the self construction of...