ScholarWorks@성균관대학교

초록

Originally a term denoting barbarism and primitivism, Gothic later developed into a literary mode that explores the realms of human unconsciousness, emotion, anxiety, and fear in reaction against rationalism and material civilization. The concept of the Female Gothic, introduced by Ellen Moers, refers to narratives in which women writers examine the fears, desires, and the yearning for liberation of women oppressed under patriarchal systems. Rather than emphasizing supernatural horror, the Female Gothic foregrounds social reality and psychological repression, thereby revealing the contradictory social position of women. In the works of Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang), a leading figure in modern Chinese literature, the spirit of the Female Gothic plays a crucial role. Although her time witnessed the expansion of women’s participation in society, patriarchal values and moral conventions continued to constrain women’s lives. Zhang transforms such social oppression and inner anxiety into the unique notion of “guiqi” (ghostly aura). The “ghostlike modern woman” depicted on the cover of her short story collection New Legends (新傳奇) symbolizes the fragmented and marginalized female self in modern society. In major works such as The First Incense, Love in a Fallen City, and The Golden Cangue, the motif of the “house” functions simultaneously as a refuge and a prison, playing a symbolic role similar to the castle or labyrinth in Western Gothic fiction. Zhang’s “guiqi” does not stem from supernatural phenomena but from existential anxiety caused by real-world oppression. Her works inherit the tradition of the Female Gothic while reinterpreting it in a modern context: instead of supernatural fear, they expose social anxiety and crises of identity, portraying the “ghostlike women” of modernity. Ultimately, Zhang’s female characters are beings who ceaselessly seek their own position amid the collapse of the old and the birth of the new in modern China. The “guiqi” in her fiction serves as a literary device that visualizes the liminal identity and existential anxiety of modern women.

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