英文摘要 |
This article demonstrates how a single genre may comprise multiple voices that do not necessarily coordinate but my compete with one another. More importantly, these voices are hierarchical in terms of their audibility: some are easily heard, and some are muffled or easily ignored. The degree of audibility reflects the orchestration of a particular voice in relation to the mainstream ideology. The heterogeneous (resistant or subversive) voice usually masquerades to escape repression; it is hence hardly noticed. And yet, despite its concealment, it contains the potential to throw into chaos or alter even the basic tone of the overall discourse. To capture the intricate qualities of articulation, we therefore need to be sensitive to al vocalizations, manifest and hidden.
To illustrate, I use the female-specific literature known as shu (female writing) that was circulated exclusively among peasant women in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province, in south China. Specifically, I focus on the shu wedding literature, called sanzhaoshu (third-day book). My research shows that although sanzhaoshu served as a mechanism for socializing women to the male-defined value system, it also carried women’s reflections and critiques on this very and rocentrism. This critical discourse, however, remained unnoticed because it resided not in the text itself, but in its context. The text articulated the male-derived sancong (thrice-following) doctrine and maiden-sisterhood reminiscences, which were in accord with the Confucian social arrangements. The context in which the text was performed create a space where identity and connections could be forged among married women, an activity expressly excluded from patriarchal wedding rituals. To contrast the textual creations with contextual ones illuminates not only how diverse voices may coexist within the sanzhaoshu genre; the interplay of these also highlights how protagonists negotiate between their inner sentiments and social constraints, and how women’s perspectives are complexly constructed and dialectically positioned. |