A Marxist Feminist Interpretation of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girl
ZhuPeiYu

Xi’an International Studies University,Shaanxi Province, Xi’an City ,714000;

ABSTRACT:Caryl Churchill is a representative figure of contemporary British feminist playwright, whose works have always focused on the dilemmas faced by modern women. As her most representative play, Top Girls portrays female characters from different periods and shows the suffering of women in the course of history including in family, economy and family. Marxist feminism is a branch of feminist literary critical theory that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, emphasizing that capitalist private ownership is the root of inequality between men and women in all aspects. This thesis applies the theory of Marxist feminism to interpret the oppression suffered by women in Top Girls from three dimensions — domestic environment, labor market, and patriarchal education, which provides readers with a new perspective to explore the feminism embodied in the play.

Keywords:Top Girls; Caryl Churchill; Marxist feminism; capitalist ownership; patriarchal society

Reference

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