Space and Romance: a Study of Feminist Position in Miss Sophia’s Diary and Sealed Off

Abstract

Interrogating two cases, Sealed Off and Miss Sophia’s Diary, this paper seeks to apply spatial narrative theories to extract two spatial dimensions, namely physical-space and subjective-space, and interpret the authoresses’ feminist positions based on their deliberate writing on intricate feminine consciousness and psychology that male writers would not be able to experience. The images of men in the novels are also analysed to expose the independent and rebellious consciousness of the two heroines based on the two novelists’ deconstruction of the male-centred portrayal of masculinity in female discourse. It has been found that for women whose consciousness is awakened to seek liberation, physical-space symbolises a double metaphor, offering the possibility of the birth of new women in China during the May Fourth period, but also a cage that imprisons women in their quest for independence; subjective-space more specifically represents the May Fourth new women’s confrontation and mortification with their pursuit of free love, and the deviation of both male and female stereotypes prevalent in traditional Chinese literature.