瑪格麗特艾特伍的《浮生》與《盲眼刺客》: 母職與男性霸權的建立

Abstract

Man and woman have often been in a state of conflict in that traditionally man, not woman, has always been the “subject.” What contributes to such inharmony between the sexes is the ideology of phallocratism. Feminism since the 1970s has attempted to deconstruct the operation of patriarchy with an eye to wake woman’s consciousness. It engages in unveiling what is hidden behind the male dominance from different perspectives and dimensions. Sexual difference, in feminist viewpoint, is a social or cultural construction, which can be reinterpreted with a different perspective. Mothering and the maternal function, according to psychoanalytic feminists, occupy a significant and decisive position in the construction and realization of patriarchy establishment. They put women in inferiority within a heterosexual relationship and further contribute to their oppression. Women often tie themselves with the conventions that are imposed upon them without knowing that they partly perpetuate their own oppression. Consequently, the exploration of mothering and mother-daughter relationship has become part of the focus of feminist studies. Margaret Atwood, a contemporary Canadian novelist, demonstrates in Surfacing and The Blind Assassin many predicaments most women encounter and the relationships between the sexes. The protagonists in her description often face a mother short of a positive image for the daughters to inherit, but the daughters in their longing and quest for the lost maternal figure eventually reach their female subjectivity, which enables them to counter their victimhood under the Law of the Father. The primitive symbiosis with the mother may cause daughters’ suffering yet contribute to their self-identification and propels them to recognize themselves. The daughters’ in the process of writing their childhood memories rediscover their self and each other, dissolving the ambivalence between mothers and daughters. My proposed research intends to explore how the women in the two novels are exploited and victimized by patriarchal society and how such victimization is connected to maternal function through psychoanalytic feminist approach. In my studies, several questions are expected to solved, such as: Why does patriarchy reject woman as the other? Are women the victim or the accomplice in their sufferings? Why? How does the parental function, maternal function in particular, influence women’s subjectivity and self? Do the daughters “other” the mothers so as to attain subjectivity? Do the women as mothers, daughters, wives, and lovers overcome their predicaments? These questions along with others will be further explored with the application of two psychoanalytic feminists, including Nancy Chodorow and Luce Irigaray. Their endeavor of constructing a specifically female cultural space is particularly appreciated. In their theories, the representation of maternal subject and mother-daughter genealogy is also one part of their emphasis. The thesis is composed of five parts. Chapter one is the introduction. Chapter two introduces the theories of Irigaray and Chodorow. Chapter three discusses women’s oppression in the novels in terms of Irigaray’s perspective of patriarchal establishment. Chapter four puts emphasis on mother-daughter relationship and illustrates its connection to women’s oppression. Chapter five is the conclusion. In fact, even in the twentieth century, the relationship between the sexes still needs more consideration, especially when women are still expected to practice her “roles”—mothers, daughters, wives, and lovers. This topic is worth considering in that it better reveals the horror and violence of the ideology and brings a potential impact on the communication between the sexes.