ХУДОЖНЯ РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦІЯ ЖІНОЧОЇ ІДЕНТИЧНОСТІ В КИТАЙСЬКОМУ ПОСТФЕМІНІСТИЧНОМУ РОМАНІ

Abstract

The article analyzes the post-feminist concept of gender identity in the modern Chinese women’s novel and defines ways of its artistic expression. The research material is Wei Hui’s novel “Shanghai Baby” (1999). This work is a Chinese version of the genre Chick lit, which depicts the life of a modern emancipated woman in a metropolis. The gender identity of the heroine Coco is fluid, changeable, and multifaceted. The article considers the following components of gender identity: sexual, gender role, mental, and socio-cultural. It is determined that Coco is aware of herself as a woman, her appearance and behavior reflect the stereotypes created by glossy magazines and advertising. The authors pay considerable attention to the analysis of bodily practices (unbridled behavior, love relationships), which define the “essence of femininity” in the novel. The sexual behavior of the heroine became the subject of harsh criticism in China and the object of interest in the West. The article considers such behavior as an important component of love (not only heterosexual) relationships and a woman’s self-determination. In the structure of the heroine’s gender identity, the choice of gender-role behavior is important. In her novel, Wei Hui offers a large list of non-trivial gender roles, which are the result of filling the traditional form with feminocentric content. The paper analyzes traditional roles reinterpretation mechanisms, the carnivalization of these roles, and embodiment by the heroine. The sociocultural component of Coco’s identity reveals the masculine-feminine and East-West binarism of her consciousness. The article analyzes the heroine’s motivation for creativity as a result of the expression of masculine (desire for success) and feminine (introspection, search for the meaning of life) character traits. Instead, in the creative process, she reveals a feminine way of artistic thinking associated with the sublimation of motherhood (novel = child), autobiography, superimposition of the text on one’s own life, duality (author = heroine), and also uses the feminine techniques of «writing through the body». The article examines the influence of Western and Eastern (Chinese) cultures on the formation of Сoсo’s female identity. The dominant Chinese cultural component is an echo of tradition that limits the heroine’s selfexpression, while the Western component is simulative, but offers the heroine a sense of personal freedom.