Female Self-Possession and Material Feminism in Elizabeth Stoddard's''A Study for a Heroine'' (1885)

在伊麗莎白斯史塔特〈女主角的研究〉中的女性自 主權和唯物女權主義（1885）

The issue of self-possession is integral to the discourse of feminism and women's (property) rights in late nineteenth-century America both in women's fiction and non fiction. Oftentimes articulated by feminists as a right to be gained in the struggle for gender equality, others had already laid claim to it by equity law and custom. Either way, the struggle for female self-possession often involved unorthodox actions and unusual material living conditions. In this context, Elizabeth Stoddard's short story,''A Study for a Heroine'' (1855), reflects Sarah Brett's lifelong struggle for self-possession. Fuelled neither by political nor by spiritual motives, the story blends corporate and capitalist work, personal and social pleasures, public and private space, housework and communal life. This particular understanding of female self-possession is coupled with''material feminism'' in that the blurring of domestic and public boundaries manifests itself in the material make-up and spatial arrangements of Sarah's house, work, and marriage. A unique late approach to self-ownership in Stoddard's works, the short story thus represents domestic work as social labour, which corresponds to the material feminists' agenda of economic, spatial, and material transformation of Americanculture.

這篇有關自主權的論文，是從十九世紀後期美國婦女小說和非小說組成的話語論述來探討有關女權主義和婦女的（財產）權利。習於在兩性平等的爭戰中取得權利的女權主義者，通常會聲明：攸關女性財產權益的法律和習俗是由女性以外的其他人來決定的。無論到底是由哪種方式決定，女性為擁有自主權的奮鬥，往往涉及非傳統的行動和不尋常的物質生活條件。在這種情況下，伊麗莎白斯史塔特的短篇小說〈一個女主角研究〉（1855），便反映了薩拉‧布雷特終身追求自主權的奮鬥。這個故事不是由政治，也不是由精神動機來推動，它綜合了企業和資本主義的工作、個人和社會的樂趣、公共和私人的空間、家務和社交的生活。它的特色是女性自主權加上了「唯物女權主義」的思想，而家庭和公眾的界限模糊則體現在物質化的化妝、薩拉房子的空間安排、及其工作與婚姻。這是史塔特的後期作品中一個接近自我所有權的獨特方法|這篇小說展現了家務勞動被看成社會勞動的過程，這也是美國女權主義者有關轉型經濟、空間和唯物的議程。