Gender, Community, Religion, And Literature

May 4th female literature is not only one important part of Chinese modern literature, but the beginning of modern Chinese female literature. There are generally two ways in the study of May 4th female literature. One is from the point of view of gender, which neglects its connection with the outside world, especially that of Christian culture, while the other, though takes the latter into consideration, affiliates it with modern literature, thus overlooks its gender features. In order to see the whole picture and the unique features of May 4th female literature, it is necessary to have the two approaches united.The May 4th female writers are profoundly influenced by Christian culture. And western missionaries played an important role in its transmission in China. On the one hand, in order to exert influence on Chinese women, while criticizing the corrupt customs of China, they built up schools, including schools for women. They also adapted their religion to the Chinese needs, paying special attention to women's rights and equality between men and women. Thus encourage them to go out, receive education, and show defiance to the oppression from their male counterparts. On the other hand, many missionaries see themselves as enlighteners, and with a sense of superiority of their western culture, they also aroused a kind of hostility from them and make them hesitate to accept. Through the work of missionaries, Christian culture reached China. However, whether it was accepted or to what extent it was accepted by its recipients, was determined by the recipients and the different influences exerted on them. As far as May 4th female writers are concerned, though most of them were educated or influenced by Christian culture, yet they were still part of Chinese traditional culture and affected by May 4th New Culture. And they also have their own individual and emotional experiences. So their attitudes to Christian culture are complex. Intellectually, they may hesitate. Emotionally they are in favor of and rely on it. And some of them are even converted. In this sense, May 4th female writers have much to do with and are profoundly influenced by Christian culture.However, the influence of Christian culture on May 4th female writers in China took on both national characteristics and specific gender features, which resembled those features of womanists from other third world countries. Their exposure to and acceptance of Christian culture had a close relationship with those counterparts of the third world countries. Their understanding and cognition are based on similar experiences: national experiences, their own religion, myths, cultural heritage and female experiences. They are concerned about similar things, such as Godology which centers around the sex of God; Christology that focuses on the sex of Jesus, and the relationship between Jesus and women; Sin and Salvation surrounding Eve and Mary; and anthropology concerning the relationship between men and women, and human relations, etc. Therefore, womanist criticism on the Bible provides theoretical bases and methodology for the study of the relation between May 4th female literature and Christian culture. The dissertation discusses how May 4th female writers accept and display western Christian culture and its characteristics.As to Godology, though China has had a"god"ever since ancient times, the concept and figure of God comes from Christian culture in May 4th female literature. Tintered with the color of the times, May 4th female writers abandoned the mysteriousness of Godology which goes against Chinese ideology, and created different images of God with strong emotions, personality, even female features. They include the Creator, God as Mother or Woman, audient to the holy words, and the target of spiritual reliance, etc.As far as Christology is concerned, May 4th female writers, like their male counterparts, do not consider Jesus divine. Instead, they think him as a great man with strong personalities. But unlike male intellectuals, women writers, conscious of their own female experiences, find in him some similar qualities, such as self- sacrifice, suffering, forgiveness, philanthropism etc. Because of this, they are more willing to consider him as a female. Therefore, they create many female Christ in their works. With Jesus'equality between the two sexes, and the female Christ images created they hope to show their resistance to traditional hierarchical patriarchal ideology, and also exhibit a strong confirmation of women's traditional values.The most closely related female character to Jesus is his mother, Mary. Traditionally, she was described as a humble, obedient, and sacrificial mother in the patriarchal society. May 4th female writers, however, consider her a secular and real mother, and spare no efforts in praising the great mother's selfless love, thus created many great mothers in their writings, which not only implicates their Chinese roots and the influence of Christian culture, but also proves that they tend to be more conservative, and lack a sense of criticism concerning the images of mothers.On the opposite side of Mary stands the figure of Eve, who is the embodiment of evil, feebleness, desire, and ignorance in patriarchal ideology. But in the May 4th female literary context, Eve is a synonym of the New Woman who revolts against feudalistic family and pursues love and personal independence. Their Eve, active but not radical, refuses to be fooled by the long-standing concept of"virtue women need no talents", and bravely and persistently pursues knowledge, explores meaning of life, and stresses personal value. Their image shows the gentle and honest qualities of Chinese women, and also their alliance with their male counterparts, which is a unique feature.In their works, May 4th female writers exhibit their unique understanding and representation of the humanity of Christianity and the relationship between humans. Under the influence of philanthropist ideas, they express a kind of ideal of sisterhood that goes beyond gender, race, class and different biases. Their works create different kinds of sisterly friendship, all of which are approaches of women's awakening of self-consciousness and their pursuits of self-liberation. These approaches represent an ideal, indicating their resistance to patriarchal despotism. Especially, the love between women themselves reveals the mystery of their construction of the female self. Here, their realistic significance goes hand in hand with a kind of utopianism. Yet, May 4th female writers go further, and expand their focus to the relationship between man and women, and between human beings in general. Influenced by Christian culture, most of them have a modest attitude to the woman liberation movement. Instead of criticizing their male counterparts, they consider men as their alliances. In their attempts to find a balance between their career and family life, they hope, together with men, they can create an Eden, where men and women, all human beings can live happily and harmoniously.As a study of May 4th female literature from the perspective of womanist criticism on the Bible, the dissertation reveals the tensions on gender, community, religion and literature. Like their male counterparts, May 4th female writers learn, understand, and accept Christian culture in the Chinese cultural context, and thus endow Christianity with a Chinese feature. Yet, restricted by their own gender, their actual acceptance is different from male writers. Unconsciously, they adjusted the Christian teachings and images to their own emotional needs and their specific experiences, thus endows it with a feature of their own. This feature is well represented in their literary works.