Author: Katherina Li, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Email: swanakathy@gmail.com
Published: December 15, 2021
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijl.10.2.05
Citation: Li, K. (2021). Politically Marginalized Female Figures: Female Grassland and Celestial Bath. IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijl.10.2.05
Abstract
Yan Geling’s early work Female Grassland雌性的草地 (Yan, 1989) is a novel published in 1989, while Celestial Bath 天浴 (Yan, 2008) is a short story published in 1996. Both of Yan Geling’s works focus on female sent-down youth, with stories set in the grasslands of the Tibetan pastoral countryside during the mid-1970s, in the waning years of the Cultural Revolution 文化大革命 (1966-1976). This paper discusses women’s fragmentation to analyze the obstacles to women’s liberation during the sent-down youth movement, illustrating how female sent-down youth’ tragic experiences resulted because of political power.
Keywords
Celestial Bath, Female Grassland, female fragmentation, oppression, sent-down youth