A Cross-cultural Analysis of New Female Images in The Portrait of a Lady 

摘要

《贵妇人的画像》是亨利.詹姆斯最受欢迎的一部小说，同时也被评论家视作詹姆斯的代表作之一。该小说讲述的是一位聪明漂亮的美国女孩，伊莎贝尔.阿切尔跟随姨妈离开了美国，来到欧洲的境遇。这部小说展示了伊莎贝尔的人格魅力和各种各样的女性角色以及当时的社会现状。此外，这部小说还讨论了关于个人自由、责任和背叛等话题。本文以跨文化研究的方法来分析讨论该小说所呈现的新女性形象。

本论文主要包括四个部分：第一本部分介绍作者和小说的主要情节；第二部分介绍了在小说《贵妇人的画像》中跨文化交际不可避免的文化冲突；第三部分主要分析探讨小说中的新女性形象；最后一部分讨论伊莎贝尔.阿切尔婚姻失败的原因。

本论文以跨文化研究的方法分析了小说《贵妇人的画像》中一系列新女性形象，并且揭示了在男权社会中，女性所面临的困境。此外，本文也阐述了该小说给当时女性的启示和当时社会正逐渐觉醒的女性意识。

关键词：女性形象；男权社会；自由；跨文化

Abstract

The Portrait of a Lady is deemed as one of Henry James’s most popular books and is regarded as one of the representative of him by critics. The Portrait of a Lady is the story of a beautiful and smart American girl, Isabel Archer, who leaves America to live in Europe with her aunt. This novel has demonstrated Isabel’s character, various new female images and social status at that time. In addition, this novel also discusses the themes of personal freedom, responsibility and betrayal. And this paper discusses the new female images from the cross-cultural perspective. 

This paper incorporates four parts. The first part briefly introduces the author and the main plot of The Portrait of a Lady. The second part introduces the inevitability of culture conflicts during the cross-culture communication in The Portrait of a Lady. The third part focuses on the new female images in this novel. The last part gives the reasons of the failure of Isabel’s marriage. 

This paper discusses the new female images from the cross-cultural perspective and reveals women’ dilemma in the patrilineal society. Moreover, this paper also reveals the enlightenment of this novel and the awakening women awareness at that time.

Key words: female image; patrilineal society ; freedom; cross-culture