From Silence to Heteroglossia: The Development of Feminine Self in Li Ang’s Fiction (1983-2005)

Abstract

This thesis examines the development of feminine self in Li Ang’s fiction during different stages of her writing. Beginning in the 1980s, the rise of Taiwanese women writers has been one of the most significant phenomena in the history of Taiwanese literature, fundamentally challenging what has traditionally been a male domain. Women writers demanded to be regarded with the same respect as male writers. Also, they focused their concern on female inferiority in a patriarchal society. Li Ang is one of them. Not only does she illustrate the issues of women being repressed by patriarchy, but also she has worked out a feminist solution to those issues. In this thesis I will focus my discussion on three of Li Ang’s representative works, The Butcher’s Wife, The Labyrinth Garden, and Bewitching Love, to examine how Li Ang has re-established the female “Garden of Eden”, namely feminine self, in her fiction.