《飘》是美国现代女作家玛格丽特.米歇尔于1936年发表的一部长篇通俗小说,也是其一生唯一的一部长篇小说,《飘》问世70多年来,被广泛流传并受到广泛的好评,不失为一部旷世经典之作。然而《飘》所走过的路程却并不是一帆风顺的,在许多批评家看来,《飘》不能被称为一部优雅的艺术之作,甚至不能进入美国文学的神圣殿堂。小说的女主人公斯佳丽被他们描绘成一个极度自私、爱慕虚荣、冷酷无情、为达目的不择手段的女性。但是,经过

good nor very sound.” But in these opponents sounds, the book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Although Gone with the Wind brought Mitchell fame and a tremendous fortune, it seems to have brought little joy. Chased by the press and public, the author and her husband lived modestly and traveled rarely. Also questions about the book s literary status and racism, historical view and depiction of the Klux Klan, which had many similarities with D.W. Griffith s film The Birth of a Nation (1915), led to critical neglect that continued well in the 1960s. Griffith s film was based on the Reverend Thomas Dixon s racist play; the author was a great admirer of Mitchell and wanted to write a study of her novel. In Atlanta the Klan kept a high profile and had it national headquarters in the 1920s on the same street, where Mitchell lived.

During World War II, Mitchell was a volunteer selling war bonds and volunteer for the American Red Cross. She was named honorary citizen of Vimoutiers, France, in 1949, for helping the city obtain American aid after World War II.

Mitchell died in Atlanta on August 16, 1949. She was struck by a speeding car while crossing Peachtree Street.

1.2 About Feminism

Feminism is closely related to women s struggle for social, political and economic equality of men and women. The Women s Movement evolved out of social reform groups such as the Abolition of Slavery, the Social Purity and Temperance Movements. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), the first great feminist treatise, Mary Wollstonecraft argues that women should not be excluded from the rights enjoyed by men and she is an early proponent of educational equality between men and women. Engels The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884) provides the most comprehensive account of patriarchal history and economy. His explanation of the roots of women s subjugation in the main institutions of class society is a giant step forward and lays the foundation for a scientific understanding of women s plight.

But Mitchell wrote a distinctly feminist novel. She sounds the note early with the narrator s comment that “at no time, before or since, has so low a premium been placed on feminine naturalness,” and she mercilessly exposes a southern patriarchy that requires that women be flatteringly subservient to males, no matter how much less intelligent and capable. But even more telling than its overtly repeated feminist message,