Historical Vicissitude Of Androgyny Thought In Feminist Literary Criticism

The concept “androgyny” has been generated for far too long, and it is the idealstate in the development of the androgynous relation. Its implications carry variousemphases in different developing stages and tend to be richened and developed ratherthan accomplish at one stroke. It has multiple meanings in such fields as biology,physiology culturology. Based on the ancient mythology, religion and genderandrogynous image and Platon about “androgyne” argument,Wolf Verginia, a scholar ofradicalism feminist, was the first one to introduce androgyny into Feminist LiteraryCriticism. She pointed out in his work A Room of One’s Own that the androgyny thoughtwas an ideal state of writing to clear up the thought of binary opposition of men andwomen. Meanwhile, she practiced this idea in his work. Her statement breaks through thescope of biology and steps into culturology. As a result, her statement brought heateddiscussions from many female scholars, and they argued about whether the androgynyintended to clear up differences or emphasize differences. These scholars can be dividedinto two schools: the approval and the objection. In1980s, the theory of divergencebetween men and women was challenged. With the permeation of post-modernism,researches from many feminists found that a woman existed not only as a female but alsosubjected to certain class, hierarchy or nation. They had their own special life andcomplex value and were different from each other. Thus, the differences between maleand female are no more important than the differences among women. The surpassing ofgender difference and realization of the harmonious of two genders becomes a newtheoretical guidance. The concept “androgyny” is open and multivariate. Therefore, thediscussion of androgyny will continue. The development of androgyny thought declaresthe development and evolution of androgynous relation and the expectation of worldharmony.