A Study of Geling Yan’s The Flowers of War From the Perspective of Postcolonial Feminism by Spivak

【Abstract】Under the background of Nanjing Massacre， The Flowers of War is Geling Yan s description of how the 13 Qinhuai prostitutes sacrificed themselves to save 13 school girls. By analyzing the misery of women in the third world， this paper aims to expose the collective trauma of Chinese and the suffering of women in the third world.

【Key words】patriarchy; oppression; imperialism; collective trauma

【作者簡介】李云龙（1990-），女，汉族，河南驻马店人，西安外国语大学英文学院英美文学专业，学生，硕士研究生在读，研究方向：英国文学。

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak （1942-） is an Indian scholar， literary theorist， and feminist critic for the third world（2014）. Can the Subaltern Speak？（1988） is her famous work because she begins to care ethics in postcolonial feminism， leading her to reflect on whether the subaltern can even speak. In The Flowers of War（2007）， Geling Yan tells a story about 13 Qinhuai prostitutes who saved 13 young school girl students from Jinling Girls Academy under the invasion of Japanese soldiers. During the war， two American priests Fabio， Father Engelmann and three Chinese soldiers in Wilson Church witnessed the tragedy. “Spivak identifies imperialism and the colonialism it endangers as the key to understanding the echos of western hegemony”（Con Davis， Robert， and David S. Gross;164）. Women endured dual oppression from imperialism and patriarchy， and the narration of the war by Geling Yan implied collective trauma of the Chinese. This paper used Spivaks Postcolonial Feminism to analyze oppression of male and female on women in the third world.

Firstly， this paper talks about womens oppression on women. Because of the differences in class and profession， both 13 young school girl students and 13 Qinhuai prostitutes discriminate and oppress one another. Young school girls think that prostitutes are immoral and degraded while students are moral and polite， representing superior culture under patriarchal system. In chapter 6， Cardamon went to the refectory to eat soup when young students were also eating soup there. Because of discrimination， the two groups began to quarrel and fighting for space. Under patriarchal system， wife is both an othered victim and an oppression on female. Meng Shujuans mother， a traditional Chinese wife， cursed and discriminated prostitutes when Meng Shujuans father had love affairs. Secondly， under patriarchal system， there existed oppression in the same lower class and the same profession. Zhao Yumo was humiliated by the mother in Qinhuai brothel because the mother thought Zhao Yumo stole her scissors. Thirdly， colonizers dominate colonized people by race and culture hegemony. It is white people who think that the white are superior to Asian people. Lady Minnie Vautrin， a white woman， representing hegemonic culture， helped priest Fabio send the 13 Qinhuai prostitutes to Japanese soldiers.