ABSTRACT: Ernest Miller Hemingway is one of the most famous American novelists in the 20th century and is also considered as the representative of “the lost generation”. His three well-known short stories which are Hills Like White Elephants, Cat in the Rain and The End of Something are all classics which reflect the feminist consciousness. Through the description of women’s fight for discourse power, the three novels reveal the female character’s gradual awakening of feminist consciousness and their quest for freedom and independence. The author of this paper has found the theme of discourse and power permeates in the three short stories coincides with Michel Foucault’s power theory. Michel Foucault is one of the most influential French thinkers and philosophers in the 20th century, and is particularly known for the theory of power. His theories provide a new angle to perceive social relations. He argues that discourse is one kind of power, which can release power, contain power and exert power. Where there is power, there is discourse. So this paper attempts to adopt Foucault’s power theory to interpret the three famous short stories, with the aim to reveal the female characters’ quest for freedom and independence in the patriarchal society and provide a new perspective for readers to interpret the female characters in Hemingway’s short stories.         

Key worlds: Discourse; Power; Feminist consciousness 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

摘要

ABSTRACT

1 INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Hemingway-1

1.2 An Introduction to Hemingway’s Three Short Stories-2

1.3 Foucault and His Power Theory-3

2 LITERATURE REVIEW-6

2.1 Overseas Research-6

2.2 Domestic Research-7

3 A FOUCAULTIAN INTERPRETATION of FEMINIST DISCOURSE-9

3.1 Men’s Control over Women-10

3.2 The Fight for Feminist Discourse-15

3.3 The Deconstruction of Patriarchal Discourse-21

4 CONCLUSION-26

REFERENCES-27

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS-29