A Study of Miao-Jin Ciou’s Lesbian Novels

• Main Authors: Huei-yin Lin, 林慧音
• Other Authors: Huei-jhen Jhang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/87797943003867516565

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 國語文學系中國文學碩士在職專班 === 97 === Since the late 1980s, Miao-jin Ciou had employed lesbianism in her novels with various themes. Her works presented the transition of butches and femmes from the conservative state in 1980s to the pursuit of self-identity in 1990s. The hopelessness and despair of Ciou herself and the inner roars of constrained lesbians were also described in her novels. Her works play an important role in Taiwanese lesbian novels. The study aims to explore self-identity, narrative strategies of queer performativity, relationships between lesbians, family and campus, and the profiles of butches and femmes in Miao-jin Ciou’s lesbian novels and diaries. The concept of her creation is further investigated and discussed. This thesis contains five chapters. Chapter One introduces the purpose and the motivation of the study. Chapter Two describes the historical background of Miao-jin Ciou’s lesbian novels. Chapter Three investigates Ciou’s novels. Five sections are included in this chapter: self-identity and erotic predicament, homophopia and queer performativity, patriarchy on campus, tugs between individual emotion and family, and butch-and-femme writing and reification. Chapter Four discusses her creation philosophy from the perspective of first-person narrative in her diaries and further explores her style of creation in her novels. In Chapter Five, a summary of Miao-jin Ciou’s ideas of creation is provided. Her novels based on her authentic sensation of life reveal the struggle and hardship as being a butch at that time.