Transformation and Fantasy of Women’s Subjectivity- Study of Mu-Lan-Shih and Disney Animation “Mulan” -
Walt Disney’s animation “Mulan” is based on Mu-Lan-Shih, Yue-Fu-Shi of the Bei-Wei period. The particular motive in Mu-Lan-Shih, “going-to-war-in-man’s-clothes”, appears in various forms of literary genre from Sui-Tang through Ming-Qing periods to the present days.
This paper discusses the relation between ‘women’s subjectivity’ in women's self-realization and that in women’s self-esteem in “Mulan” which employs the motive of Mu-Lan-Shih. Looking into the nature of woman’s subjectivity of the fourth and fifth centuries’ Chinese women represented in Mu-Lan-Shih and analyzing the aspect of self-realization in the animation “Mulan”, the paper explicates the features of women’s subjectivity adapted in these two works. It finds the reality of women’s subjectivity by discussing the characters and themes related to the six motives, ① woman’s original function ② conscription and going-to-war-in-man’s-
clothes ③ heroic exploits in the battle ④ declination of the offer of public office and homecoming ⑤ restoration of her femininity ⑥ responses of friends.