The Journey Back To "Wild Land"

This thesis uses Edwin Ardener's concept of "WILD LAND" to examine the protagonist's personal growth and the social environment in the novel "Dae Jang Geum" which explores and reveals the origin of feminism's initiation and the efficacious strategy for achieving gender equality.The thesis is divided into three sections:The introduction presents the main content of the videotext "Dae Jang Geum" and also contemporary local and foreign studies concerning this protagonist. This section also broaches issues on research priorities and approaches.Five chapters make up the main body of the thesis. Chapter Two cites the article "Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness" by Showalter which presents English anthropologist Edwin Ardener's concept of "WILD LAND" in analyzing the protagonist's personal growth and her social environment. It stresses the importance of a family environment that observes equal rights in order to generate feminist consciousness in the wild social environment. It also identifies the small pieces of hard-won ground within the male-centric world as the virgin wild land for women's self ideology.Chapter Three recounts the protagonist's experience in converting her work role and opens a discussion on how to free women from their exclusive territories in order to compete for the common right to work in the same field as men. It also analyzes the process of the protagonist's qualitative change from a "real woman" into a "person" and considers the empowerment to work as the economic basis for being independent.Chapter Four is about the relationship between language and rights. It analyzes the meaning inherent in the act when the protagonist changed the voice of history from being a spontaneous protester to an independent speaker. It posits that women should give up uncommunicativeness and compete for the right to speak as that is the only way to gain political liberty and achieve rights for women.Chapter Five reveals the mystical significance in the options of living inside and outside of the palace and the work space. It also believes that life in the countryside away from the dominant [male] ideology as another wild land for feminist consciousness and the possibility for its further development. The concluding Chapter Six addresses the academic value and realistic significance of the image of femininity which also brings the thought and enlightenment about the extent for women to be accepted in the modern society.