A Feminist Narratological Interpretation of the “Why Women Kill”

Song?miaomiao

Abstract：“Why woman kill” is the most popular American drama in the second half of 2019. It has three story lines， telling the story of three heroines of different ages in the same mansion， facing the infidelity of their husbands in marriage and finally killing their lover. Based on the feminist narratology， this paper will analyze it from three factors， including narrative mode， narrative perspective and narrative voice. According to the analyzation， it hopes that it can explain its unique aesthetic value and artistic value of the drama.

Key words： Why Women Kill， Feminist Narratology， Narrative Mode， Narrative Perspective， Narrative voice

Introduction

Why woman kill is a comedy crime TV series directed by David Grossman， Liu Yuling， mark Webb， David Warren， Elizabeth Allen， Valerie Weiss， starring Liu Yuling， Jennifer Goodwin， Kirby Howell Baptist， etc. It has three story lines， telling the story of three heroines of different ages in the same mansion. The three heroines in drama are Anne the housewife in the 1960s， Simone the socialite in the 1980s， and Taylor the contemporary lawyer. They also roughly correspond to several stages of the feminist movement. In the face of the infidelity in marriage， the three of them finally kill people， which is the so-called dramatic female liberation， but the three have different motives. As a housewife， in the face of her husbands infidelity， Ann first thought about how to save her husband. At this time， she did not have the consciousness of womens liberation. But with the company and persuasion of a feminist neighbor， Ann slowly realized that it was ridiculous to humbly please her husband and try to save her marriage， so she gradually went to kill her husband. Simone married for the third time. He and her husband run a gallery together. They belong to the elite class. They have a certain sense of feminism to grasp their freedom of marriage. But she found that after her husband become a gay， she only wanted to conceal and maintain her image. It can be seen that Simone was still controlled by social attitudes and suppressed her desire for various ethics and morals. Taylor is a contemporary lawyer， a bisexual and a feminist， who bears the cost of his open marriage， which can be said to be an extreme. The dominant power of this marriage is the female side， which is also the default of her husband， Eli. Tyler is the most feminist， but finally kills the girl she once loved， jade， after her husbands infidelity and degeneration. Many researches about this drama focus on the couples relationship in the marriage and the spread of American drama from a cross-cultural perspective. Actually， the play contains a strong feminist color. This paper attempts to analyze the narrative characteristics from the perspective of feminist narratology from three aspects： narrative mode， narrative perspective and narrative voice， discussing how the women got rebirth.

Narrative Mode

Feminist narratology is the product of feminism or the combination of feminist literary criticism and structuralist narratology. Susan Lancer， a representative of feminist narratology， distinguishes two narrative modes： “public narrative” and “private narrative”. “Public narration” refers to the narrators telling of the story to the narrator outside the story， including the first person narrators telling of the readers outside the story who have not been told; “private narration” refers to the narration of a certain narrator inside the story， and the first person narrators narration of a certain character in the story also belongs to this kind.

In this drama， the two types were used. The director abandoned the biographical style of plain narration， did not arrange a single narrator to tell the story of three families， but used the first-person narration of multiple characters in parallel， so that the monologue of multiple parts interweaved in the vertical and horizontal dialogue. At the beginning of the drama， we can see public narration from Beth Anns husband， Rob. He said ：“I tell you， theres nothing sexier than a girl who likes to take care of you”“Beth Ann was a virgin on our wedding night”. From these utterances， we could gain that in the marriage man wants to get a wife like Ann who is na?ve， pure and sweet. Most importantly， the wife must put her husband first. Its not fair that men impose their ideas on women.

Narrative perspective

The relationship between narrative perspective and gender politics is also the focus of feminist narratology. Different from structuralist narratology， feminist narratology holds that “the relationship between narrative perspective （focuser） and observation object is often regarded as an ideological relationship If the focus is on women， critics tend to focus on how their observation process reflects womens experience and reaffirms womens subject consciousness， or how it reflects the influence of patriarchal society “（Shen Dan， 2004）.

The changing narrative perspectives of “why women kill” are all womens perspectives. The TV series deconstructs the male centered cultural tradition and creates a world dominated by women through mens infidelity to marriage and the creation of hypocritical and selfish male images. In this world， womens self-awareness has been greatly developed， and mens authority has been subverted. For example， Anns role building is a typical example of female consciousness awakening in drama. In the play， Ann is dressed in a typical 1960s housewifes clothes， and the matching of clothes is meticulous from head to toe. The play is also gradual for Anns growth， from her husband knocking on a cup to pouring coffee to putting on a new skirt or even taking off and sitting at the table. From emptying a box every day after moving to running into the bathroom. This kind of setting full of reversals let us see the multi-faceted and three-dimensional character of Ann. And her relationship with her husband is also constantly reversed， from the initial obedience to silent protest， even for her husband did not stop domestic violence anger. In particular， Anns skillful shuttle in the family party seems to show her proficiency in this kind of party， which is showing her control.

On the other hand， the narration from the perspective of feminism also reveals the dominant position of men in marriage， and the position of “obedience” and “weak” of women in their eyes， as well as womens understanding and reconstruction of their own identity. Rob is the dominant position in marriage and Ann is absolutely is a good wifewho is obedient and weak in Robs eyes. When she knew Rob has another woman， she didnt blame for her husband but find reasons from herself. In addition， she tried to many efforts to get Rob back even she makes friends with mistress. Later she found that it is not her fault about her husband affair. So， she and other women who was suffered family violence design a plan to kill their husband. Finally， they got success and at this point Ann deconstructs the male centered cultural tradition and creates a world dominated by women and reconstruct own identity.

Narrative voice

In the study of narrative voice， feminism narratology adopts the concept of “voice” of structuralism narratology and draws on the technical distinction of narratology for different strong narrative voice.

In Lancers view， “personal narrative voice” refers to the first-person narrative in which the narrator and the protagonist are the same person. The stories in the why women kill are relatively independent and related to each other， but they are all narrated by the first person “I”， which makes the inner world of the characters in the TV series unfold， and enables them to describe other characters at the same time. Beth Ann， Taylor and Simone lived in the same mansion in different ages， and they used the first-person perspective to tell audience or people around them in the drama how sad or sorrow in the marriage facing their husband lies and treachery. The director himself retreats behind the video， shortens the distance between the narrator and the audience， and makes the audience feel a higher sense of reality. In the speech of “the voice of personal narration”， the narration is inevitably limited by time and space and cognition from the perspective of individual observation. In order to complete the narration， the director arranges different narrators to narrate different fragments and contents， so that the narration conforms to their identity and cognition， and makes the narration more natural and appropriate. “Personal narrative voice” provides the possibility for multi angle description， expands the information capacity of the TV series， and enables the audience to penetrate into the characters hearts and integrate into their stories. From the perspective of aesthetic value， the multi angle personal narrative and the narrative structure that deviates from the tradition in the TV play enhance the three-dimensional sense and artistic appeal of the TV play.

Conclusion

Based on the feminist narratology， why women kill used public and private narrative mood， changing womens narrative perspective and personal narrative voice and collective narrative voice to describe womens resistant consciousness when they are facing various problems in marriage. In a word， why women kill adopt a new narrative method， take the changing “I” as the center， construct a non-traditional time and space framework， and describe the marriage experience of three couples from the multiple perspectives of feminism.

References

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[3]Toolan， M. Narrative： a Critical Linguistic Introduction （2nd edition）.London： Routledge，2001.

[4]申丹.敘事形式與性別政治——女性主義敘事學評析[J].北京大學學報（哲學社會科學版），2004（1）：136-146.

作者簡介：宋淼淼（1996-），女，漢族，河南濮陽市人，學歷，2019級在讀研究生，單位：內蒙古師范大學，研究方向：英語語言文學。