An Empirical Study of Modeling Language and Tools in Postmodern Feminism

摘要

The 1980s were a time period during which postmodern feminism spread across Japan and liberated traditional female figures in Japanese society. Postmodern feminism not only generated female writers’ enthusiasm for literary creation, but also changed the traditional female images created by Japanese male writers. This paper will employ Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood to examine the impacts brought by postmodern feminism on female figures in male writers’ literary work. Previous studies have mainly focused on the impacts of postmodern feminism on Japanese female authors. Therefore, this paper will aim to explore the changing attitudes of Japanese male writers and their thoughts towards females in the new era. I will argue that due to postmodern feminism, the depiction of female figures in literary creation have gradually changed from the traditional image of loyalty, weakness, or male sexual enlightenment, to new images concerned with their internal struggles. This paper will also explore the uniqueness of Japanese male authors through a comparative lens of female figures depicted by Japanese female authors during the age of postmodern feminism.