摘 要

夏洛特·珀金斯·吉尔曼写作的《黄色糊墙纸》是美国女性文学史上一部重要的早期作品，其中充斥着哥特式的恐怖氛围。小说中女主人公的身心深受父权社会的迫害，最后她终于在这样的强压之下变得癫狂，成了父权社会里一个可怜的受害者。本论文分为三个部分， 通过分析《黄色糊墙纸》中的背景设置、人物塑造以及叙事技巧等元素来剖析小说中蕴含的女性哥特式书写特征，从而将其与传统及单方面的女性小说与哥特小说相区别，在突出主题与审美价值上有着一定的作用。

关键词：夏洛特·珀金斯·吉尔曼；《黄色糊墙纸》；女性哥特书写

Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. Demonstration 3
   1. Female Gothic Settings 3
      1. The Haunted Mansion 3
      2. The Enclosed Nursery 5
      3. The Weird Wallpaper 6
   2. Female Gothic Characterization 7
      1. The Manipulative Hero 8
      2. The Self-contradictory Heroine 9
   3. Female Gothic Narrative Techniques 11
      1. The First-person Point of View 11
      2. The Dementia Narrative 12
3. Conclusion 14

Works Cited 16

Bibliography 17

A Study of Female Gothic Writing in The Yellow Wallpaper

Introduction

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was a prominent American feminist and writer. Born on July 3, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, Gilman spent much of her youth in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1890, she participated in Nationalist Clubs movement and wrote fifteen essays, poems, a novella, and the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. She was a utopian feminist with unorthodox concepts and lifestyle, whose fame grew along with her social circle of similar-minded activists and writers of the feminist movement. Her notable works are: The Yellow Wallpaper, Herland, and Women and Economic, etc.

First published in The New England Magazine in January 1892, The Yellow Wallpaper is Gilman’s semi-autobiographical short story which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis. Presented in the first-person point of view, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman who suffers from illness after three months of being closeted in a room for the sake of her health by her physician husband. A weird yellow wallpaper obsesses her and drives her insane at last. The real purpose for Gilman to write this story was to convince Dr. S. Weir Mitchell of his own error, who tried to relieve her depression with a “rest cure treatment”. Gilman used her writing to change people’s minds about the role of women in society at that time, illustrating the oppressive forces of the patriarchal society and women’s lack of autonomy. At that time, women were discouraged from writing because writing would be a way to create an identity and a form of defiance. She added that The Yellow Wallpaper was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy. Through this work, Gilman paved the way for female writers later.

As an important early work of American feminist literature, The Yellow

Wallpaper has received wide critical attentions and has been studied from different perspectives. Most overseas studies of The Yellow Wallpaper have focused on its supernatural settings, representative characters and feminist themes. Domestic studies

are different from those in foreign countries, whose focus is shifted to the image of insane heroine, narrative style and symbolic connotation in the story.