摘 要

《荆棘鸟》被誉为澳大利亚的《飘》。《荆棘鸟》作为考琳.麦卡洛的代表作，讲述了从1915到1969年间克里利一家三代女性的情感和人生经历。克里利家族中四位女性的经历和命运成为了不同历史时期澳大利亚女性成长的真实写照。作为上世纪70年代的作品，《荆棘鸟》诞生于妇女解放运动的风潮之中，自问世以来，就激发了诸多学者的研究热情，他们从文化、宗教及女性主义多种视角对《荆棘鸟》进行了分析与解读，但却主要集中于分析人物角色、宗教悲剧或是通过女性主义视角分析女性形象、女性意识，而缺少通过对话和心理活动剖析两性关系的研究。本文以《荆棘鸟》中的角色及其话语为研究对象，运用福柯的权利话语理论，从话语权和主体性的角度分析家庭中的两性关系和女性的成长，期望能总结出有利于女性成长与进步的几个重要因素。

关键词：荆棘鸟；话语权；两性关系；女性成长

Abstract

Known as the Australian Gone with the wind, The Thorn Birds is Colleen McCullough's acclaimed masterwork, relating the story of the Cleary from 1915 to 1969. It involves the romance and life experience of Cleary women in three generations, whose life becomes the authentic depiction of Australian women’s growth in different periods. Published in the 1970s, the time of Women’s Liberation, The Thorn Birds has inspired lots of scholars’ zeal for research. Their analysis ranges from the perspective of culture, religion to that of feminism with the focus on interpreting the characters, the tragedy of religion, females’ image and consciousness, while rarity is still found in the research of gender relationship through analyzing of characters’ conversation and psychology. This paper takes the four female characters in The Thorn Birds and their conversations as the subject of study, using Michel Foucault’s theory of discourse power as a foundation to analyze the relationship between the two sexes and women’s growth in a family, with an expectation to draw a conclusion of the beneficial factors influencing women’s growth.

Key Words: The Thorn Birds； discourse power； gender relationship； females’ growth

contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Collen McCullough and The Thorn Birds 3

2.2 Previous Studies about The Thorn Birds 4

2.3 The Legend of The Thorn Bird 5

3 Theoretical Foundation 7

3.1 A Brief Introduction of Michel Foucault 7

3.2 The Theory of Discourse Power 7

4 Analysis of Discourse Power in The Thorn Birds 10

4.1 Mary—A Powerful Widow 10

4.2 Fiona—A Silent Conformist 11

4.3 Meggie—An Awakened Believer 15

4.4 Justine—An Independent Rebel 18

5 Conclusion 21

References 22

Acknowledgements 24

Game of Discourse Power Between Two Sexes in The Thorn Birds

1 Introduction

The Thorn Birds, written by Australian writer Colleen McCullough, was a huge international bestseller and had been turned into movies and television series. Even today, it is still a favorite for many people. As a beautiful story of love and loss, it was mainly set in Drogheda, Australia and started from 1915— a hundred years ago. In this age, the love of a girl for a celibate Catholic priest would have been so forbidden as to be fantastical. This book was published in the 1970s, an era differed from the first half of the 20^th century. The 1960s had left its mark. It was the decade of change, when Women’s Liberation began. As a collective struggle for equality, it sought to free women from oppression and male supremacy. In a sign of the times, The Thorn Birds also carries the same spirits, which has been shown in some existing researches—focus on analyzing feminism and female characters. However, women are closely associated with men, the dominator in patriarchal society. When females want to change their situation, the relationship between men and women becomes a reliable indicator. This thesis will develop around the gender relationship in The Thorn Birds to witness the growth of women in the Cleary family.

The connection between people is intangible and hard to measure, so the conversation and thoughts can stand out as the direct subject. As Michel Foucault said, “power is everywhere”, both discourse and relationship are representative forms of power. Different from the old definition of power, this power transcends politics and becomes an everyday, socialized and embodied phenomenon. Moreover, from this point of view, power is not just a negative, coercive or repressive thing that forces people to do things against their wishes, but can also be a necessary, productive and positive force in society. By using Foucault’s theory of discourse power, this paper shows an understanding of women’s growth through analyzing of discourse power between the two sexes.

This thesis consists of five parts, with literature review, theoretical foundation and analysis coming between the introduction and the conclusion.

The introduction explains the purpose of this study about analyzing the conversation between two sexes in The Thorn Birds, and tells the content and structure of the dissertation. The second part is literature review, in addition to a few words about the author and the novel, it also reviews the previous studies about this novel. In the end, it draws an analysis of the legend of the thorn bird. Chapter three is the theoretical foundation, including a brief introduction of Michel Foucault and his theory of discourse power. For the analysis part, it mainly discusses the relationships between males and females by analyzing their conversations, and focuses on women’s images. In conclusion, the thesis compares four different female characters and their gender relationships, summing up factors which stipulates the growth of a woman.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Collen McCullough and The Thorn Birds

Collen McCullough (1937-2015) was an Australian author who worked in a range of genres but was best known for her second novel, the sweeping romance The Thorn Birds, and for her Masters of Rome series, a painstakingly researched fictionalized account of Rome in the age of Julius Caesar. During the forty years of her writing career, she has produced twenty-five novels, one biography, some essays and music dramas. She was named a “living treasure” by the National Trust of Australia in 1997 and appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2006.