O mundo feminino chinês: história, cultura e tradição na obra Snow flower and the secret fan da escritora Lisa See

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation has been to see how literature reflects and is embedded in the history and culture of a country. To achieve our goal, we select and analyze the novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005) by the American author Lisa See‘s in its historical and cultural context. A detailed comparison of the social and cultural aspects of Chinese history and the Chinese tradition with their fictional articulation, by See in the novel, shows that See does not distort the history. It also affirms that a literary text is not simply a historical document, but a literary one as well and can be built in the modern scenario with a modern vision. The theoretical premises of comparative and gender studies follows critics both from east and west such as, Antonio Candido, Ladelle McWhorter. Dorothy Ko, Sandra Bartky, Yan Ming, Fan Qui, and others. As a conclusive comment we can affirm that, looking at the historical roots of the millennial Chinese culture and tradition See‘s novel reflects and reconstructs the customs and certain practices followed by Chinese women, either to preserve their beauty or to keep their secret world distant from male gaze such as the foot binding, nu-shu and laotong.