Hysteria as a Strategy in the Power Network: A Study of Power Relations in "The Yellow Wall-paper"

• Main Authors: Yu-Hsuan, Tsai, 蔡郁瑄
• Other Authors: Tsu-Chung Su
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/00658410993751183482

碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 外國語文學系 === 92 === This study examines the power relations in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wall-paper” by considering hysteria as a strategy that is employed by a female caught in a power struggle. It demonstrates how female power may be mobilized under the impact of the family and a medical system that serves the interests of the patriarchal authority as the grand strategies for serving male domination in the power network. The yellow wall paper contacts with the narrator’s female force to create new power relations to break out the panoptic grand strategies of patriarchy and perform her female power. Foucault’s notions on power and madness are fully implicated in the discussion, and Cixous’ notion of other bisexuality will be called upon at the end of this thesis to exhibit how female power is exerted under the administration of power by patriarchal authority.