摘 要

《一小时的故事》是凯特•肖邦女性主义的文学名篇之一，反映了 19 世纪末期美国的社会现状和女性意识的觉醒。本文运用认知语言学的意象图式理论，从女性主义的视角来阐述小说中频繁出现的四种典型意象。“门”和“房间”象征婚姻的束缚和身心的羁绊，而“楼梯”和“窗户”则意味着自我意识的觉醒和对平等自由的憧憬。这些意象多维立体地反映出女主人公马拉德夫人在一小时内的情感变化。同时，她个体意识的觉醒和喜极而终的结局也揭示了 19 世纪末期美国男女不平等的社会现状，体现了世纪之交的美国社会对于女性价值的漠视和对其精神的压制。通过剖析肖邦作品中女性对冲破传统社会约束的强烈要求，以及对于自由及独立的渴望，也进一步反映了作者女权意识的流露和对人性及社会发展的深刻反思。

关键词：凯特•肖邦；《一小时的故事》；女性主义；意象图式

Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. Demonstration 2
   1. Background of the novel 2
      1. Feminism at the end of the 19th Century 3
      2. Kate Chopin --- the Author 's feminist thought 4
   2. Lakoff amp; Johnson's Image Schema Theory 4
      1. Image schema 5
      2. The function of image schema in expounding the theme of the novel 6
   3. Analysis of image schema in the novel 7
      1. The "Door" : the shackle of marriage 7
      2. The "Room" : physical and mental fetters 8
      3. The "Staircase" : self-awakening 9
      4. The "Window" : desire for equality and freedom 9
3. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

Bibliography 13

An Analysis of Feminism in The Story of One Hour from the Perspective of Image Schema

Introduction

Kate Chopin (1851-1904) is a distinguished, influential and controversial writer in American native literature. The Story of an Hour is the prelude of a series of her works depicting women's awakening and rebellious spirit. Perseside praised it like that: it is the most shocking masterpiece about female self-declaration in the world (Cui 2006). The criticism of the patriarchal society and the compliment of women’s pursuit of physical and mental freedom caused a striking sensation in the Realistic Period in the late 19th century. The creation of this work, inspired by the world’s first feminist wave, profoundly reveals the serious theme of independence, individuality and gender equality.

Since the publication of the novel of The Story of an Hour, many academic researchers at home and abroad rushed to study it. Foreign studies in the initial stage tended to put the focus on the case study or research about the plots of the novel in chronological order. Susan Lancer paid attention to its ideology from the perspective of feminist narratological analysis, believing that the work shows extremely clear feminist consciousness and expresses the author’s dissatisfaction to the male’s oppression but the compassion and appreciation to the heroine. Some scholars have suggested that this work reproduces the plight of women who pursued unrestricted spirit in the late 19th American society, while, through questionnaires, others found that the novel focused on the awakening of female consciousness in the patriarchal society. The American scholar Gehry Meyer pointed out from a semantic point of view that the language in the novel is a powerful means for readers to dialogue with modern society (Mayer 2010).

In recent decades, scholars have tended to interpret the book from the angle of myth and legend, philosophy, multiculturalism, symbolism, and new historic development. Chinese researchers, despite their less systematic or

innovative findings, have devoted much to ecocriticism, modernism and feminism. Some scholars in China held that the novel mirrors the tragic fate of Louis's loss of self -consciousness under the patriarchal rule. Shen Dan, the scholar from Peking University, asserted that “the work is not only about gender politics with ironic text structure, but involves marriage shackles and single freedom” (Gaard 79) . Additionally, Xiu Lili researched the feminism based on three-dimensional transformation. Other scholars supposed that the novel is a combination of multiple themes, for example, Mao Yanhua, Zhang Yulong, and Fu Jingjing, reckoned that the novel explores ecofeminism, interpersonal communication, and teaching strategies.