Female Dilemmas And Female Desires In Fay Weldon’s Fiction

As a contemporary female writer, Fay Weldon occupies a controversial position in the field of literature in Britain, not quite serious enough to be hailed as a classic but also not so commercial enough to be a spokeswoman of ―chick lit‖. During her almost fifty- year writing career, Weldon never loses her focus on the contemporary women‘s lives. With her audacious female protagonists, her unique narrative strategy, her irony and humor, Weldon and her works remain the center of contentio n among Western critics. However, the researches on her and her works at home are rather scarce. The thesis has focused on Weldon‘s three novels written in different stages, including Praxis, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, and She May Not Leave, with the aim of exploration of the different dilemmas women confront and the different desires they produce together with an examination of Fay Weldon‘s pluralistic relationship with feminism. To begin with, the thesis attempts to discuss the awakening process o f the submissive Praxis in Praxis during her journey of constant runaway and return and expose her desire for self-discovery and self-affirmation. The thesis then centers on the second type of women—the subversive Ruth in The Life and Loves of a She-Devil who boldly refuses to be the housewife in the suburb, subverts the male discourses of language, religion and law along her road of revenge on her husband and his mistress, and eventually gains her own voice so as to establish her desire for power. The following part explores how the independent new woman Hattie in She May Not Leave, actively reacts to her dilemma both at home and work and makes her determination to realize her value and change the society through work. The thesis concludes that Fay Weldon subverts the stereotyped female images, unfolds the initiative and improvement of her female protagonists from the awakening submissive angel Praxis to the rebellious She-Devil and to the active Hattie, and also reveals her own desire in her fiction.