Narrative On Female Problem In May 4th Literature

May 4th Movement is one of the important periods in the history of modern China. During this period modern woman gradually boarded the stage of history. This dissertation aims to study the complicated situations about the imagination, construction and narrative of the issue of women in contemporary literature during May 4th MovementIntroduction."Issue of women", for the first time, came into the field of vision of progressive intellectuals as a"problem"in the national crisis in the late Qing Dynasty. Later, with the development of new culture wave during May 4th period,"issue of women"was in full swing, which laid the foundation for the women's liberation in 20th century in China. Therefore, to know the historical origin of the current situation of women better, we can not avoid the exploration of women's situation of May 4th period. During this period, the joint efforts of the remarks about women's liberation in New Culture Movement and the writings about women's problems in New Literature formed the new trend of thought about the issue of women, which attacked the traditional female norms system greatly. Consequently women's living conditions had a historical change. By exploring the expressions about women's problems as well as imagination and construction of women's images in new writers'writings, we can find their opinions of women or the truth of gender awareness, and then understand women's living conditions at that time. This paper will make further researches on this problem by employing"social gender analysis"approach.Chapter1 Issue of women: modern phenomenon in Chinese culture during May 4th period. The issue of modern women, which sprouted in the late Qing Dynasty, was fully and fatherly expanded with the upsurge of New Culture Movement. Personality has become the pursuit of its core values. Progressive social ideas and New Literature have been involved in the construction of the issue, which expanded the living space of women greatly. Accordingly, the discussion about modern women's problems also promoted the growth of modern factors of these two aspects. But at the same time we have generally found that because of the restriction of historical and cultural conditions, there existed limitations and deficiencies in the trend of thought about issue of women during this period. These limitations and deficiencies may be corrected in the imaginations and expressions about the issue in literary works during that period. They may also be amplified in a more covert way. These possibilities attract us to do more in-depth and meticulous research.ChapterⅡThe establishment of modern women education and new images of women in May 4 literary works. During May 4th period, modern women education was finally established after a long and hard period of development. The historic and great progress made May 4 women walk from boudoir to society, which gave birth to the first generation of female writers of contemporary literature in China. Of course, the female students were still cramped in a small living space, and at the same time they had to face the traditional and conservative society and the stringent norms. In addition, new problems appeared, and the contradiction between the pursuit of career and traditional family role emerged for the first time. Synchronously New Literature recorded the new opportunities and problems brought about by modern women education. This writing which has the characters of the time has been marginalized in different degrees in modern literary criticism, which shows that there still exists a certain degree of gender limitation in New Literature.ChapterⅢWomen in sex: changes of sexual morality and writings about sex. The discussion about new sexual morality, especially the criticism of the traditional"concept of chastity", gave an impact on traditional sexual morality in ideology, but sex awareness is still far from the inherent nature of an individual. May 4 women's sexual concept and behavior were still confined severely. The chaotic state between the old and new ethics exacerbated the volatility of women's fate, which can be proved by the confused selections for women in the writings of female writer Feng Yuanjun and degeneration of rebellious women described by Zhang Ziping and Bai Cai as well. In the works of such writers as Yu Dafu, women only existed as"it"—the object of fulfilling male desire, which shows that traditional concept of gender still existed among progressive intellectuals. Perhaps these works destroyed the old sexual ethics to a certain extent, but they were not enough to build a new sexual morality based on gender equality. Women's living space was still very small.ChapterⅣReformatory ideas and writings about love and marriage."Free love"and"marriage to self-determination"have become the banner for May 4 young intellectuals to challenge the traditional ethics. To May 4 women, such words and slogans as"love"and"marriage"were of great importance. To "die"and"run away"for them has metaphorically become the fable of the times for May 4 woman. Undoubtedly, during May 4th period,"love"and"marriage"have been given too heavy significance, therefore, inevitably they were of the color of illusion and fragility. This was confirmed by the frequently-employed themes about deception and victimization in the works of these writers like Lu Yin. In the works of many male writers, repeated theme"Nora"fails to provide adequate and useful support for women to get rid of the dependent personality and truly become independent spiritually. New culture and literature is too limited to understand this issue.ChapterⅤFamily problems in the times of renewal. It is undeniable that during May 4th period, reform on family values brought about liberation for women. Of course, such reform was bound to cause conflict and suffering. There still existed contradiction and paradox along with the conflict between the old and new ethics. When young people with new ideas were faced with family problems, several related values of the same group often contradicted each other. May 4 men hoped that he could set a new family with women of the same education level based on the independent and equal gender relations. But when the family encountered problems, they tried to persuade each other to accept their own ideas and concepts in the traditional patriarchal authoritarian approach. They accepted the old marriage with the humanitarian spirit of self-sacrifice, but they were quite indifferent to their wives'existence and feelings. From this, we can judge that traditional patriarchal authoritarian system still existed in gender relation and continued to serve for the ideal of the new family in the new norms of the era, which formed new relationship of gender oppression combined with the trend of thought in the new era. Conclusion. Through the issue of modern women acting as a map of modern culture, we find that during May 4th period, modern culture, taking personality liberation, equality and independence as weapons, gave a great impact on traditional culture. At this great historic moment, although women jumped onto history stage by virtue of opportunities in the era of reform, the concept of respecting the subjectivity of women existed more as a creed and general principle of thinking in the observations of new intellectuals and was manifested in an overt level rationally. In fact, women were not as equal as men and the liberation of women was still a problem. Women were still cramped in a narrow living space. This situation is a token of hardship experienced by Chinese culture in the process of modernization.