Remembering the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: Women’s Memoirs in Their Cultural Context
Date
2011-05-10
Authors
Taylor, Sarah M.
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Abstract
This thesis examines the memories of sixteen Chinese women who recall their experiences in living through the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966- 1976). It describes the living conditions and characteristic experiences of urban, educated adolescent women and women of their parents’ generation, for the period as portrayed in the subject memoirs. The two generations differed in their experiences and attitudes, but GPCR policies which targeted a division between youth and adults ultimately failed to pull these families apart. The memoirs document the subjects’ gradual disillusionment with Maoist policies and their turn toward more individual, privately satisfying goals for their lives. The memoirs are discussed in the context of their mixed heritage, in form and content, from both Western-European and Chinese traditions of self-narrative.
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Keywords
China, Memoirs, Cultural Revolution, Autobiography, Women's memoirs