英文摘要 |
This paper aims to examine how women’s role is represented in the subgenre of Taiwan’s self-help bestsellers for improving relationships. Bestsellers are normally regarded as part of popular culture and the contents are clichéd and formulaic, yet there is no denying that they also reflect social changes, the public desire and to a certain extent, the Zeitgeist. Though buying a book does not necessarily mean the book has been read, it at least shows what interests people. As American critic, Michael Korda, claims, the list is like a mirror that reflects who we are, what we want, what interests us. It can be seen as a map of the social change and the microcosm of the mainstream ideologies. To further complicate the issues, translation has increasingly played a significant role in Taiwan’s publishing industry in recent decades. Yet, its impact on our culture and society has rarely been investigated. Thus, I’ll look at how domestic writers and translated works give guidelines to modern women and what image of women these self-help bestsellers portray and what impact they may have on women. To examine the representations of women’s image in these self-help bestsellers, we can also trace the transformation of women’s role throughout the recent decades. |