New Ethics and Old Roles: The Identity Dilemma of May Fourth New Women

五四新女性是在学校这一现代教育平台由新文化启蒙话语塑造而成, 她们的意识 形态认同来自新文化, 是以个人主义为核心的正义伦理; 而她们的性别认同及相应 的关怀伦理, 却使其对“旧道德”下的女性同类有更多同情。为实现个人权利、维护神 圣恋爱, 她们“忽略”名分、委屈尊严, 在新旧道德的模糊地带与有妇之夫结成特殊婚 姻。而非正常婚姻关系的缺憾, 爱情中隐含的性别等级, 个人自由与关怀伦理的对立 与冲突等, 都导致她们陷入认同危机。新女性身份认同的困境, 体现了“五四”正义伦 理的道德局限, 而五四文学表达的某种匮乏, 亦源自这个局限。

关键词: 五四文学 新女性 身份认同 正义伦理 关怀伦理

The new women of the May Fourth Movement were molded by the enlightenment discourse of the new culture in universities. The ideological identity they acquired from the new culture was an individualist ethics of justice. Their gender identity and the corresponding ethics of care, however, stirred their sympathy for other women shackled by the “old ethics.” To realize their human rights and maintain the sacredness of love, the new women were even prepared to “overlook” their social status and sacrifice their dignity to enter into special marriages with married men at the ambiguous interface of the old and the new ethics; but the shortcomings of an abnormal marriage, the gender hierarchy concealed behind love, and the antagonism and conflict between individual freedom and their ethics of care for others plunged these women into an identity crisis. Their identity dilemma reflects the moral limits of the justice ethic of the May Fourth new culture, limits that also account for a kind of deficiency in expression in May Fourth literature.