Proquest Dissertations
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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black arxl white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Artx>r, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI STRATEGIES OF MODERN CHINESE WOMEN WRITERS’ AUTOBIOGRAPHY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jing Wang, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Xiaomei Chen, Adviser Professor Kirk Denton ______ Adviser Professor Patricia Sieber East Asian Languages and Literatures Professor Julia Watson UMI Number 9983003 UMI UMI Microfotm9983003 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Z eeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This is a study of twentieth century Chinese women writers’ autobiographies as they were written and received both in China and in the West. This dissertation fills a significant gap in modem Chinese literature and in the global study of autobiography by providing a full-length discussion of the autobiographical texts written by Su Xuelin, Lu Yin, Xie Bingying, Yang Buwei, and Chen Hengzhe. In this dissertation I place their autobiographies in the historical and cultural contexts of their writing / translation while engaging in critical analysis and close reading. I treat their texts theoretically as autobiography. Therefore I question their previous use by critics as biographical material in interpreting the authors’ fictions. Through tracing where their autobiographies are continuous with and where divergent from traditional Chinese life writings, this study at once brings out the embeddedness of these texts in the historical circumstances of twentieth-century China and their intricate connections with autobiographical conventions in the West. I also discuss the presence of Western autobiographical discourse in the formation of these texts in order to highlight that these texts are cross-cultural products. By engaging with both autobiographies written for Chinese audiences and those written / translated for Western audiences, this dissertation addresses issues that are relevant to literary studies, women’s studies, gender studies as well as autobiography criticism and theorizing. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My gratitude goes to Xiaomei Chen for her generous intellectual support and encouragement from the choice of topic to the final honing of the dissertation. 1 thank Kirk Denton and Patricia Sieber for their influence upon writing and critical thinking. I am also indebted to Julia Watson for introducing me to criticism and theories of women’s autobiography and for her kind support and instruction every step along the way. I deeply appreciate the intellectual influence of Jinhua Dai, Yan-shuan Lao, and Galal Walker. Very deserving of my acknowledgment is Debbie Knicely who helped me deal with all the technicalities involved in my graduation process. I sincerely thank my fellow students for both academic and moral inspiration and shared friendship. Of course, I also thank all the members of my family, not the least of whom is Mimi, the most knowing cat, each in a different way, for their presence in my life. Ill VITA January 24, 1963 .................... Bom — Beijing, China 1982.........................................B.A. English, Hebei Normal University, China 1982-1985.............................. Lecturer, Hebei Normal University, China 1985........................................ M.A. English, Beijing Foreign Studies University 1988-1991.............................. Editor, China Social Sciences Publishing House 1993 ........................................ M.A. English Literature, Northeastern University, 1995 .........................................M.A Modem Chinese Literature, The Ohio State University 1993-1999 ...............................Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 1999-present..........................Assistant Professor, Colgate University PUBLICATIONS TRANSLATIONS Wang, Jing. “Dai Jinhua,” in Lily Hsiao, ed. Biographies o f Modern Chinese Women Writers and Artists. Sharpe. (Forthcoming) Wang, Jing, trans. 2000. “Immediacy, Parody, and Scenery in the Mirror” by Jinhua Dai. (Forthcoming) Wang, Jing. “Dai Qing,” in Jane E. Miller, ed. Who’s Who in Contemporary Women's Writing. London, Routledge. (Forthcoming) Wang, Jing. 1990. Yingshi ru men. (Introduction to English Poetry). Shanghai: Shanghai Translations Publishing House. IV CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS “Advancing the Advanced: Narration Skills in Fourth-Level Chinese Leaming,” the Chinese Language Teachers Association Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX, November 1999 Panel discussion for "The Body, Desire, and the Limits of Meaning," the Midwest Conference on East Asian Culture and History, Columbus, OH, May 1999 “Text as Space: Rewriting Sexuality as Textuality in An Autobiography o f Lu Tm,”the Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, March 1999 “Participating in the Target Culture: Teaching Perspectives in Fourth-Level Chinese,” the Chinese Language Teachers Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, November 1998 “Negotiating the Self: the Erotics of Writing in Su Xuelin s My Life and Ninety- Four Years o f a Floating Life," the New York Conference of Asian Studies, Binghamton, NY, October, 1997 “Development of Narration Skills in Chinese Language Leaming,” the Chinese Language Teachers Association Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, November 1997 FIELDS OF STUDY Major Areas: East Asian Languages and Literatures, Modem Chinese Literature, Women’s Autobiography, Language Pedagogy. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................... iii Vita.................................................................................................................................. iv Introduction; Historicizing Modem Chinese Women Writers’ Autobiography 1 1. The Neglect of Chinese Women Writers’ Autobiographies in China and in the West....................................................................................................... 2 2. The Anxiety of Early Chinese Autobiography ............................................. 23 3. The Influence of Modem Chinese and Western Autobiography ................ 33 4. The Tradition of Chinese Women Writers’ Autobiography....................... 42 Chapters: 1. The Politics of Body and Fame: Su Xuelin’s My Life and Ninety-Four Years o f a Floating Life............................................................................................... 68 I. I Writing Herself Against Other Women........................................................ 75 1.2 Self-Redemption through Affiliation with Canonized Writers.....................101 1.3 Engendering Literary Maternity as a New Role............................................I ID 2. Healing Personal Trauma: An Autobiography o f Lu Yin ..................................... 120 2.1 An Autobiography o f Lu Yin: A Trauma Narrative ...................................... 123 2.2 An Autobiography o f Lu Yin: A Narrative of Healing.................................. 136 2.3 Substituting Textual Production for Sexual Reproduction ...........................145 3. Chinese Women Writers’ Autobiographies in the West: Xie Bingying, Yang Buwei, and Chen Hengzhe......................................... 157 3.1 From Footbinding Strips to A Soldier’s Puttees: Girl Rebel: The Autobiography o f Xie Bingying ....................................... 165 3.2 “A Chinese Woman in Oil Painting:” Autobiography of a Chinese Woman ......................................................... 180 3.3 “Transforming horn the Cultured Lady of the Home to a World Citizen: ” Autobiography o f a Chinese Young Girl ...................................................... 195 3.4. Politics of Autobiography in China and in the West....................................205 vi Conclusion........................................................................................................................