The Scarlet Letter is a romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne。 In the early 1640s, Hester has come to the small town of Boston, Massachusetts, from Great Britain, while her husband, Chilling Worth has left to deal with something。 But there is no news about him and nobody know whether he is alive or not for two years。 Then Hester and the town’s priest-Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale engage in the act of adultery and produce a baby girl named Pearl。 Hester has promised Dimmesdale not to reveal his identity。 Although she is put on display in front of the entire town in order to punish her。 She is then put in jail with the baby for few months and forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” which means “Adultery” forever。 Hester’s husband, Chilling Worth, had been captured by Native American Indians on his way to New England and held in captivity for two years。 After knowing of what Hester had done, Chilling Worth decides to find her partner in sin。

This thesis will make an analysis and interpretation of The Scarlet Letter from the view of post-colonial feminism。 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, who puts forward the theory of post-colonial feminism, tries to emphasize the meaning of the post-colonial theory in the study of Third World women together with post-colonialism feminism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis and western Marxism。 Based on different emphasis of feminist school, feminism can be pided into many different categories such as Marxist feminist, libertarian feminism, racial feminism, eco-feminism。 The novel has been analyzed from many angles such as the symbolism of the scarlet letter A, Puritanism, eco-feminism and so on, but no one applied post-colonial feminism。 This thesis tries to show the post-colonial opinions and feminist consciousness in the novel。 It will reveal the darkness of the patriarchal and puritan society, and try to understand the author’s compassion for women through show the repression on women in vulnerable positions of patriarchy and their courageous struggles with the hard life。文献综述

1。2Introduction to post-colonial feminism

Post-colonial feminism, as a new critical strategy in literary and cultural criticism, is formed by combining the two systems: post-colonialism and feminism。 Post-colonialism and feminism has been generally known as two methods of literary criticism。 They have been thought of connected with, even similar to each other。 Both of them concentrate on the situation of the socially marginalized subgroups-women, who are oppressed in the colonized and patriarchal society, and struggle against the injustice in the colonial system。 Women’s status in patriarchy can be equal to the colonized and puritan in the colony。 The identity of the women and the colonized are constructed as “the other” of men and colonists under the “gaze” of the men。 Women are often regarded as stupid, ignorant and savage。 They have no identity of their own and they have no discourse power, becoming silent in society。 Post-colonial feminism was put forward by Gayatri C。 Spivak。 It refers to the combination of the feminist and post colonial perspective, and strongly opposes injustice of patriarchy or imperialism。 Post-colonial feminism enables feminism to use a completely new sight, and becomes an important part of post-colonialism。

Although the colonies have owned sovereignty and gained independence now, the profound influence of colonization is still be there, and the colonization remains in many aspects today。 For example, book, movies and general impressions without white faces has either been prejudiced or reduced to stereotypes commonly。 The image of women has been pictured as savage ignorant, and even their traditions and customs are presented with despise instead of respect。 Post-colonial studies seek to change the inequality between colonized and the colonizer。

Edward Said is one of the most important representatives in the study of post-colonial。 In his Orientalism, Said explored how the orientalist discourse shaped the cultural imperialism of the Occident, the Western world, over the Orient or the Third World countries。 He said: