Abstract：Although the novel Rip Van Winkle of the 19th century written by the famous American novelist Washington Irving, and the drama Peach Blossom Land of the 20th century created by Taiwan dramatist Stan Lai, bear the different cultural backgrounds and times features, they somehow share the unbelievable coincidences and similarities in both plots and contents. This thesis shows that territorial boundary doesn’t separate the development of feminism, but accelerate the formation of their differences and connections. It mainly contributes to the feminism development and the female status by the comparison and analysis of the women in both works. In Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving, with his understanding and sympathy on the main female character — Dame Van Winkle, who is the wife of Rip, shows his great protest against the chauvinism at that specific period; Meanwhile, in the work Peach Blossom Land Stan Lai also portraits an impressive female image, Chunhua, in Taiwan literature. The females in the 1980s Taiwan fight against the specific time, and even though the female have gained the liberation from the traditional sexual discrimination, faced with the stress from the tense and stressful modern life, they are still driven crazy, and begin to lose themselves by the control of inner desires and pursuit. So it does make it significant to study the two works. Chapter One presents the brief introduction to two works. Then Chapter Two focuses on the development of Feminism. Chapter Three mainly contributes to the comparison of females’ words, actions, emotions and other details in the two works. Chapter Four is the study of the causes of the differences and similarities of feminism in both works, and the last chapter is the conclusion of this specific study.

Keywords: female images; development of feminism; chauvinism; tense; stressful

Contents

摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Rip Van Winkle-1

1.2 A Brief Introduction to Peach Blossom Land-1

1.3 The Purpose of the Thesis-2

Chapter 2 The Development of Feminism-3

Chapter 3 Comparison of Feminism in the Two Works-5

3.1 Comparison of Feminism in the Situation of the Two Families-5

3.2 Comparison of Feminism in the Content of Complaints-5

3.3 Comparison of Feminism Reflected by the Families’ Endings-6

Chapter 4 Comparison of Cultural Backgrounds and Times Features in the Two Works-7

4.1 Cultural Backgrounds and Times Features of Rip Van Winkle-7

4.2 Cultural Backgrounds and Times Features of Peach Blossom Land-7

Chapter 5 Comparison of Authors’ Attitudes Towards Feminism-9

5.1 Washington Irving’s Attitude Towards Feminism-9

5.2 Stan Lai’s Attitude Towards Feminism-10

Chapter 6 Conclusion-11

References-13

Acknowledgement-14