Abstract:
In this talk, Miss Zhang will theorize women’s writing in women’s press from 1898 to 1919, attempting to establish the theoretical framework of my doctoral project. She argues that the nature of women’s writing underwent radical transformation at the turn of twentieth century as the emergent notions imported from the West at once and at time of national crisis. In order to differentiate her examination on women’s writing in women’s press from that on women’s canonized literary texts, she defines it as “new writing” in terms of the innovative styles and content (though interspersed with numerous imported and traditional writing styles). She perceives women’s press as a legitimate and ideal public locus for female writers to practice a broad spectrum of genres, including speeches, manifestos, biographies, and serial fantasies or novels, not to mention the panoply of other new representational forms or refashioned narrative styles. At the same time, She adopts “women’s writing” in a general way to elucidate the multiplicity and richness that were embedded within these writings and thus attempt to defy any singular definition such as “feminist writing”. |
