The Representation of Domestic Violence in Sleeping with the Enemy

• Main Authors: LIN, WAN-SHIUAN, 林菀萱
• Other Authors: LAI, WEI-CHING
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4jxzme

碩士 === 國立臺北教育大學 === 兒童英語教育學系碩士班 === 105 === In Taiwan, there are over 49,000 domestic violence cases which have been reported to the police per year, which means an average of 36 victims suffer from domestic violence every day. Female victims account for 86 per cent of all the domestic abuse. Evidence has shown that this social issue is not restricted within certain socio-economic or geographic borders and that Taiwan is not alone in suffering it. Furthermore, female domestic abuse is usually represented in the postfeminist Gothic novel and film. It focuses on the sufferings of a young woman who is concurrently an abused victim tortured by a male villain and a courageous heroine who is able to change her misfortune. As a Gothic story, it demonstrates suspense and horror throughout the story. The movement from a victim to a heroine corresponds with the postfeminist proposal to replace the ‘victim’ feminism with ‘power’ feminism. Some postfeminists even advocate that women have responsibility for their own safety and that they can be imagined differently—as strong-willed and assertive. Therefore, the term ‘Postfeminist Gothic’ is used in this thesis. This research is about domestic violence and Postfeminist Gothic in Nancy Price’s novel Sleeping with the Enemy (1987) and its adapted film. There are two main concerns in this thesis: one is about the movement from a victim to a heroine through the female protagonist’s confrontation with the male villain, and the other is about the representation of domestic violence in the novel through the gothic mode. To challenge the “victim” debate dominating the second wave feminist discourse and to analyze the representation of domestic violence, psychological differences and diverse behaviors of two sexes, and the change of the female protagonist before and after her home escape, this study will apply the theories of Female Gothic, the theories of postfeminist Gothic, the theories of Gothic films and the theories of domestic violence. By conducting this research, it is hoped that the domestic violence which may exist in some families could be spoken out and some aspects of postfeminists’ thought will gain more understanding.