| Summary: | 碩士 === 世新大學 === 英語學研究所(含碩專班) === 99 === Abstract
Eve Ensler developed her play, The Vagina Monologues, for over a decade. As a result, she made “V-Day” a popular activity throughout the world. However, “to say the unsayable” word is not Ensler’s only purpose; she also seeks to speak out for women in the hope of preventing violence against them. This thesis investigates the female world as described through the word “vagina.” It discusses two female oppressions mentioned in the play: patriarchal power and violence. It also discusses two natural female powers: libido and reproduction. Finally, it discusses the methods provided by Ensler to help women find salvation.
This thesis is divided into six parts: Introduction, Pleasure, Anger, Sadness, Happiness, and Conclusion. Over the past three decades, Sigmund Freud’s interpretation of women’s psychology, namely his “penis envy” theory, has been an extensive target for feminists. However, his psychological analysis has also been used by psychoanalytic feminist studies to analyze women’s psychology. In the Introduction, four psychoanalytic feminist critics of Freud’s “penis envy” and “anatomy is destiny” theories are discussed to elaborate upon women’s developments and limitations in patriarchal culture. Patriarchal power and female power mentioned in the “Foreword” and “Preface” by Ensler and Steinem, respectively, are summarized, and research from the VDAY website and UNFPA’s 2010 report are shown in order to compare dialogues between these reviews and The Vagina Monologues. This thesis also mentions women’s awareness campaigns in Taiwan, discussing their V-Day events. Subsequently, four emotions—pleasure, anger, sadness and happiness—are laid out to analyze the implicit relationships between libido and women (pleasure), alienation/objectification and women in light of Ensler’s interpretation of patriarchal and female power (anger), violence and women (sadness), and salvation and women (happiness). In the last part of this thesis, the opinions of three psychoanalytic feminists and the salvation from the play are reorganized and summarized to provide women with new insight in terms of how to treat their vaginas.
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