China and the West

Shu, Yongzhen. Qu bie yu zheng he : dao deng da qu de nü xing zhu yi jie du [ID D31614].
Shu examined Woolf's critique of the traditional male logocentrism in To the lighthouse from the perspective feminist criticism by employing her ideas in A room of one's own. She asserts that 'If A room of one's own is Woolf's theoretical exposition of feminist literature, To the lighthouse is her practical employment of her feminist literary theory in fiction'. Woolf anchors her critique of the traditional dynamic between the sexes in her presentation of the binary oppositions of men and women resulted from male logocentrism. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay represent two diametrically different worlds respectively ; the husband is a professional man with his career, belonging to society, while the wife is a typical 'angel in the house' without a job, gelonging to the family. Shu also analyzes three kinds of secondary oppositions between Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay. First, intelligence versus beauty. Mr. Ramsay is a remarkable and respectful philosopher whereas Mrs. Ramsay is a women of extreme beauty and heavenly goodness. What makes To the lighthouse different from traditional novels, Shu argues, is that Woolf does not rest satisfied with reflecting this historical phenomena, she further questioned it and puts forward her solutions as well to eliminate it. The second solution is well embodied in Woolf's characterization of Lily Briscoe who, seeking to unify disparate elements into a whole, finally sublimates her understanding of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay's different personalities to become a real srtist with her painting. Shu writes that as male-centrism secured by the patriarchal system 'has penetrated into every aspects of culture including language, women have no language of their own to express their pecular experience and psychology, thus being deprived of voice.