Violence and Gender: The Representation of Female Characters in Contemporary Chinese Avant-Garde Works

性別與暴力：當代中國先鋒小說中的女性人物呈現

10.6372/JEFLL.200506.0042

陳雅書(Ya-Shu Chen)

女性人物陳現 ； 女性主體 ； 主動執行者 ； 身體銘刻 ； 暴力 ； 受害者 ； female representation ； female subjectivity ； active executor ； bodily inscription ； violence ； victim

教育暨外國語文學報

1期（2005 / 06 / 01）

42 - 56

英文

本論文試以中國女性及暴力之間的關係來看婦女之主體性(female subjectivity)。此一主體性在本文的脈絡下來看，定義爲女性是否爲暴力行爲的主動執行者(active executor of violent behavior)。根據《史記》和諸如《烈女傳》中的記載，中國女性的暴力或以自殘(self-mutilation)，或以凌虐其他女性之方式爲之。其暴力行爲只是在延續傳統以男性爲主體的社會中期待女性自我犧牲或取悅男性的行爲模式。中國女性以自己或同性的身體書寫記憶，套用Paul Connerton在How Societies Remember的觀點，僅僅在以因襲的道德規範屈從社會的控制。台灣小說家李昂的《殺夫》中已經初現反省。然而，在中國大陸當代以「先鋒｣自居的男女作家的作品中，婦女依然是暴力的接受者(receiver)。尤其是男性作家，即使是擅寫女性困境的蘇童，其女性人物的所作所爲亦不出爭風吃醋的窠臼。在眾多先鋒小說家的作品中，作者的性別是否與女性受害者形象的多寡有一定的關聯也是本論文欲探討的議題。

This paper aims to explore the issue of female subjectivity in terms of the relationship between gender and violence. Such subjectivity, in the context of the present paper, is defined as to whether a female character in a story is an active executor of violent behavior. According to Records of the Grand Historian and Biographies of Women, the recorded violent behavior of Chinese women were either in the form of self-mutilation, or having their rivals/competitors abused. Their violent actions continued the self-sacrificing expectations in a male-dominated society. That the Chinese women writing communal memory via bodily inscription of themselves or of members of the same sex, borrowing the viewpoint of Paul Connerton, merely demonstrates their consent to social control through enacting social moral rules. In the works of two pioneering women writers, Zhang Ailing and Li Ang, there are already some preliminary reflections on such passive inscription practices on the part of Chinese women; however, in the works of contemporary PRC avant-garde writers, those of the male avant-garde writers in particular, the female characters remain to be the receivers of violence. On the other hand, the female characters in the works of the female avant-garde writers, although few in number, take actions. This paper also looks at gender-violence relationship in terms of the sex of the writers. The present author would like to find out if the gender of a writer influences or decides his/her representation of female characters,

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