Theorizing Post-Mao Feminist Rhetoric
Mainstream Western feminist literary criticism, constrained by established theories, misses the rhetorical dimensions of other women’s literature the purpose of writing, the philosophy of writing, and the readership, all of which determine the theme, value, and voice of the work. Therefore, an enlightened rhetoric must be adopted. Rhetorical analysis, argues Deepike Bahri, answers the questions associated with text, audience, and purpose: “Who speaks for whom? Who listens? Why? What is being said? What has gone without saying? What has been suppressed”? This line of Replica Omega Speedmaster rhetorical questioning prioritizes the critic’s responsibility for research and respect for a writer’s rationale of her work.
Enlightenment embodies special meanings to feminists in the West and China alike. In the West, enlightenment encapsulates the historicity of women’s equality. Its ideals triggered the women’s rights movement in the eighteenth century. In the twenty-first century, the investigation of women’s equal pay has also developed from the enlightenment philosophy. To the Chinese, enlightenment refers to the influence of Western humanism on China’s rethinking about humanity in the May Fourth period from 1919 to the 1930s. Enlightened by the West, Chinese intelligentsia consider their own tradition outmoded and unsuited for modernization, as in women’s foot binding and men’s queue wearing. It was during this period that China witnessed the first women’s movement launched jointly by both sexes. To Chinese intellectuals, enlightenment connoted the value of humanity, freedom from feudalism, and free-choice marriage by both sexes. In the Post-Mao era, when China began its open-door policy toward the West, enlightenment was reenacted by Chinese feminists. Li Xiaojiang, a leading feminist critic and founder of the first women’s studies center in China, used enlightenment to Omega Replica Watches awaken women’s consciousness in the late 1980s, reflecting the influence of Western literature and feminism presented by such writers as Gustave Flaubert, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Victor Hugo, Henrik Ibsen, and Simone de Beauvoir. She posits, “If the collective consciousness of Chinese women were awakened, then we would definitely see enlightened women actively involved in society”. When Tani Barlow discusses enlightenment in relation to Chinese feminist theory, she contends that enlightenment marks the beginning of modern Chinese male and female feminist thinking and signals “the priorities that theorists tend to accord to intellect”. In terms of literature, Barlow believes that enlightenment is about “negotiating its colonial heritage,” a task that has fallen largely to literary theorists.
I add another meaning to the word: the enlightenment gained from the Post-Mao Chinese woman, an Other at the margin to develop for literary studies an enlightened feminist rhetorical theory characterized by responsible research for accurate literary criticism; unreserved respect for the Other’s feminist insights that enrich research; and critical reflection on the dominant conceptual framework for theoretical transformation. Feminist literary critics, who bear responsibility for their research, should ask rhetorical questions: What does it mean to be a woman writer in a specific social, economic, political, and cultural milieu For what and for whom does she write How does a woman writer’s life experience impact her writing What is the social, cultural, and aesthetic impact of her writing These rhetorical questions about literary creation naturally direct a feminist critic’s attention to the writer’s insights and to the cultural components of her work.
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