Female Consciousness in Little Women from the Perspective of Feminism 女性主义视角下《小妇人》中的女性意识分析开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

1.introduction1.1 research backgroundlouisa may alcott (1832-1888) was a famous american female writer. she was born in germantown, pennsylvania, but spent her life near concord, massachusetts. her father, bronson alcott, was a self-taught philosopher, school reformer, and utopian in concord, massachusetts. he was determined to run a school, but lacked supporters and ended in failure. like mr. march in the novel, he spent all day in the study, indulging in the pursuit of ideals, the pursuit of moral self-improvement, and even unable to bear the family life. the burden of subsistence fell first on his wife, and then on his enterprising second daughter, louisa alcott. to help sustain a poor family, luisa had to earn money by working as a maid, governess and seamstress before becoming a professional writer.influenced by her father, a writer and teacher, louisa developed an early interest in writing under the influence of her father. at the age of 10, louisa was already enthusiastic about amateur theater performances. at the age of 15, she wrote her first melodrama, and at the age of 21, she began to publish poems and sketches.in 1868, a publisher invited her to write a "book on girls", then she wrote little women based on her childhood memories. the book describes herself as joe march, and her sisters anna, abby, and elizabeth become margaret, amy, and beth respectively. as for laurie, his prototype was a young musician whom louisa met while traveling with a noble lady in europe in 1865. louisa had an affair with him, but it didn't work out. many of the stories in the book were based on real life, but the real-life alcott family was far less economically viable than march family. to the author's surprise, little women achieved great success after its publication, touched the heartstrings of countless american readers, especially female readers, and became a recognized american masterpiece. it has been warmly welcomed for over 100 years. in the 1930s, this book also became popular in mainland china, and four or five different translations came out successively. after that, louisa continued to write little men and joe's boys, and in 1873 published her autobiographical book the story of experience in novel form.after louisa became famous, she continued to write novels and stories, and became involved in the women's suffrage movement and the prohibition movement. in order to help her family and love freedom, she never married. the protagonist joe in little women is based on her. she worked as an army paramedic in washington during the american civil war, and later, as an editor for a children's publication (robert merry's museum). while serving as a caregiver during the civil war, she was treated with dry mercury for typhoid fever, which resulted in mercury poisoning that plagued her for the rest of her life. she died of illness in boston on march 4, 1888, two days after her father's death.the 19th century was the beginning of an era of "man conquering nature". after being fully prepared for the renaissance, the reformation, the scientific revolution, the enlightenment and the industrial revolution, western civilization has entered an era in which it relies on human rationality and science and technology as weapons to challenge the authority of god. the spirit of exploration has become an important part of the american spirit. alcott was an experimenter of bold reforms, a champion of better working conditions and suffrage for women. throughout the whole work, alcott's arrangement of many plots such as games, trials, experiments, and experiments are by no means arbitrary, but expresses the educational theme of his work, and the importance of experience to the growth of the march sisters.during the 1860s, a significant change in american society was that more and more women began to break free from the shackles of traditional families and gradually devote themselves to social and political life. alcott's use of courage and vision to describe the characters of the story also challenges the traditional constraints imposed on women.little women takes the american civil war as the background, and unfolds the narrative based on the trivial life between four sisters in an ordinary family in new england in the 19th century. during the american civil war, mr. march went to the battlefield as a military chaplain. his four daughters and mother lived a hard but strong and optimistic life at home. although they are poor, they are willing to help the hummel family, a neighbor who is more in need than them. they have been relying on their own efforts to solve all kinds of hardships in life. the eldest daughter, meg, is beautiful and full of longing for love; the second daughter, joe, is independent and determined to become a writer; the third daughter, beth, is a traditional good girl, weak and lovable; the youngest daughter, amy, loves painting. the story follows the years of these four women growing from girls to little women, and tells about their uninhibited love experiences and the process of their respective pursuit of different ideals and destinations.influenced by emerson, the great thinker at that time, this work emphasizes the concept of personal dignity and self-reliance and self-discipline. it is a semi-autobiographical novel focusing on female characters and emphasizing the consciousness of feminism. this thesis focuses on the expression of female consciousness and the promotion of beautiful qualities.1.2 need of the studylittle women is a classic work on female consciousness. with the development of feminist thought on a global scale, this novel is favored by more and more readers because of its own charm, people's research angles are becoming more and more novel: from foreign scholars focusing on the author behind the novel, the gender difference and social class in society, to the writing characteristics, character analysis, transcendentalism, family education and feminism researched by domestic scholars in the past ten years. among them, the research from the perspective of feminism has accounted for the largest proportion in the past ten years. however, because no scholar's theory can be regarded as a feminist theory so far, that is, there is no definite definition of feminism, domestic scholars often fail to introduce what feminism is when they write the feminism of little women. however, many scholars' analysis of the characters in the work and the female consciousness embodied by them mainly focus on the role of joe, and few of them have carried out a complete implementation of the female consciousness shown by the main characters portrayed in the work. therefore, this article aims to research and analyze the female consciousness of different characters in little women from the perspective of feminism, and provide suggestions and help for the awakening of contemporary female consciousness. it is believed that with the gradual advancement of research in related fields and the continuous improvement of people's ideology and culture, more and more women will be able to realize the importance of independence, equality, self-esteem and self-love.2. literature review2.1 definitions of feminismgenerally, feminism, which is also called female emancipation or gender egalitarianism, refers to the social theory and political movement created and launched to end sexism, sexual exploitation, sexual discrimination and sexual oppression (li me sexe. and virginia woolf created her representative works, mrs. dalloway and to the lighthouse.then the third wave, in the past couple of decades, appeared for social equality. dominated by postmodern feminism, it paid more attention to philosophical thinking beyond the scope of women, and the color of socialism and sexual freedom were more intense. 2.3 previous studies on little women daniel (2019) pointed out that the central question alcott grapples with in little women is one that readers, then and now, must settle for themselves: how does a young girl grow into womanhoodnot the cult of true womanhood of earlier americabut a new womanhood marked by independence and equality? and then he analyzed several marriage relationships in the article and made a corresponding summary: a successful married life should be filled with home-love and mutual helpfulness, husband and wife as equals.dolan (2015), however, held that the contradiction between labor, money, food, and fulfillment is the primary issue of the novel. he explored the value of women in depth through the image of bread and analyzed the hidden meaning of bread-through out alcott, bread represents food itself, the daily bread of labor, and the significantly different daily bread of true fulfillment, whether through religion, work, or self-sacrifice.the above two authors used the two different entry points of marriage relationship and bread to make a new interpretation of the work from the small images to the big picture. to a certain extent, the two are linked together. if the former proposed that women do not have to rely on marriage, then the latter provided a practical solution for the former. however, there still has a lot of insufficiency. daniel paid too much attention to the analysis of the marriage relationship while ignoring its inseparable connection with the awakening of female consciousness. and another author only described the relationship between bread and feminism in a few strokes, and did not explain in depth. 2.4 previous studies on female consciousness before the renaissance, british and american society was a patriarchal society, and female consciousness was suppressed by male consciousness. the renaissance emphasized people-centeredness, which led to female consciousness, and literary works with women as their independent existence also became popular. boccaccio's collection of short stories ten days is considered to be the "first awakening" of female consciousness. many female images are depicted in the works. their appearance is youthful and beautiful, with characters pure and moving, personalities distinct and easy to identify, and spirits independent and rebellious. shakespeare, the most representative literary master of the same period, also created many beautiful female images.at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, romantic literary works began to prevail in the european and american literary circles. during this period, female characters had more resistance, but they still succumbed to reality in the face of marriage, and their resistance was expecting a male character who could meet their imagination to save them and lead them to get rid of the shackles of their families. during this period, a number of influential female writers were born, represented by jane austen, whose works pride and prejudice, sense and sensibility, emma, etc. the ideal of women is more real and sensible.with the outbreak of the bourgeois revolution in the west, the bourgeoisie entered the stage of history, and realist literature with critical reality as its main feature became popular. the image of women in this period is very different from the renaissance and romantic literature periods. women in society have been completely awakened and liberated in terms of personal consciousness, which is reflected in literary works, and they no longer deliberately portray beautiful and kind women. instead, they choose a more ordinary female image, without a beautiful appearance or a prominent family background, but had their own dreams and pursuits, and would work hard to resist social injustice. jane eyre, written by charlotte bronte, is a typical representative among them. an orphan girl who lost her parents achieved spiritual and economic independence through hard work. (jing, 2021)by the 20th century, this kind of female consciousness was different from the general concept of female perception, nor was it the common view or concept of women about life and the world. it emphasized women's self-awareness, strove to perceive and experience life and the world around the center of women themselves, and to re-examine and view everything from the perspective of women. the female consciousness at that time changed from the idea that women were born to obey men to women should also have independent personality consciousness. women played a role in war and social progress, and the manifestation of their role in society contradicts the constraints imposed on them by this patriarchal society, making them dare to deny society. the second world war not only brought a large number of women into political and social organizations, but also changed the contents of women's previous concerns and promoted the development of their sense of competition. (chunling, 2004)referencesabu, j. (2021). women individuality: a critique of patriarchal society in virginia woolfs mrs. dalloway. studies in literature and language, 22(2), 5-11.alcott, l. m. (2008). little women. new york: baronet books.bront,e.(1847). wuthering heights. london:penguin.charlotte, b. (1960). jane eyre. new york: the new american library of world literature inc.desmawati, e. (2018). analysis of feminism in the novel of little women by louisa may alcott. journal of language and literature, 6(2), 91-96.dolan, k. c. (2015). food and labor in louisa may alcott. american literary realism, 48(1), 40-57.hanson, c. (1994). romancing the feminine:mrs dallowayandto the lighthouse. women writers, 56-93. palgrave, london.li, z. chunying, mu. (2021). analysis of feminist consciousness in the jane eyre. sch int j linguist lit, 4(9), 288-291.madsen, l.d. (2006). feminist theory and literary practice. pluto press, melbourne.nabilla, r. e. mala, h. (2019). representation of gender stereotyping in louisa may alcotts little women: endorsement of traditional gender roles. lexicon, 6(2), 111-118.shealy, d. (2019). wedding marches: louisa may alcott, marriage, and the newness of littlewomen, women's studies, 48(4), 366-378.woolf, a. v. (1934). a room of one's own. new york: harcourt, brace and company.xinyang, w. (2020). female rebelliousness on the economy and gender relations in the 19th century british literature: from jane austen to charlotte bront. advances in social science, education and humanities research, 496, 154-159.张春玲（2004），波特作品中女性意识觉醒的过程。

学术交流，6：149-151。

李艳红（2020），平等独立视野下的《简爱》西方女性主义分析。

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

The present paper makes research on different aspects of female consciousness in Little Women. The specific research question is: how female consciousness in Little Women manifests itself under the view of feminism?In order to find out the answer, the author will use Feminist critical theory to help her launch a series of studies and have a deeper exploration. So far, the author has done related documentary research, including reading Little Women, studying feminist theory, analyzed the previous research on this topic. Collection and reading of more materials are going on.