ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ФОРМУВАННЯ ҐЕНДЕРНОЇ ТЕРМІНОЛОГІЇ В СУЧАСНОМУ КИТАЙСЬКОМУ ЛІТЕРАТУРОЗНАВСТВІ

Abstract

This article is devoted to the cause of semantic ambiguity of Chinese gender terminology by the example of the most controversial concepts, such as "feminism", "gender", "feminist literature", "women's literature", "women's writing". The author pays attention to the socio-historical context, perception of Western feminist theories and actualization of traditional Chinese Philosophic Doctrines, as well as the unique phenomenon of "figurative terminology" creation. In this research, the author used cultural-historical and typological methods, as well as the method of semantic and contextual analysis. The development of a feminist (and later gender) trend in Chinese literary criticism began in the early 1980s. This process took place under the influence of three factors: 1) communist ideology and "state feminism"; 2) the spread of Western theories of feminism; 3) traditional Chinese concepts of gender relations. Chinese researchers were borrowing terms by translating them from English or other European languages. However, the process of semantic adaptation of new concepts was quite complex and had its own features. In particular, Chinese scholars sought to avoid a radical opposition of "the masculine and feminine principles" in the semantics of new terms. Instead they were trying to implement the Chinese philosophical concept of complementing the categories of Yin and Yang, which reflects the "situational worldview" of the Chinese people. One of the special phenomena of Chinese gender literary criticism is the development of "figurative concepts." Such concepts are vivid images of Western literature and literary criticism, which are gaining new meaning in the Chinese cultural environment. In particular, the concept of "The Blank Page", suggested by S. Gubar to denote female identity in a patriarchal society, is associated by Chinese scholars with the activity of Tang Empress Wu Zetian and her "Wordless Tomb Stele". The author concluded that the process of the gender terminology development in Chinese literary criticism is not complete, it balances between the new Western and traditional Chinese concepts of gender relations.