Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>

Exploring the Awakening of Female Consciousness in Chinese Women’s Cinema through Feminist Film Criticism Theory——A Case Study of Herstory

Authors
Luning Wang1, *
1School of Foreign Languages, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China
*Corresponding author. Email: 6246586@qq.com
Corresponding Author
Luning Wang
Available Online 31 December 2025.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_8How to use a DOI?
Keywords
feminism; awakening of female consciousness; feminist film; feminist film criticism theory; psychoanalysis
Abstract

The issue of women has always been a hot topic in literature and film, and in recent years, many works have taken this as their theme to express women’s desire for independence and awakening of consciousness, though the quality has been uneven. To deeply explore and analyze the methods by which feminist films portray the awakening of female consciousness, this paper selects the recently popular movie Herstory as an example, extracting its plot lines and dialogues related to women’s issues. It analyzes the personalities and fates of the two female protagonists, examining how Chinese films depict female independence from the perspectives of narratology and psychoanalysis in feminist film criticism theory. Through this analysis, the paper aims to deepen the understanding of Chinese women’s cinema and feminist literature, while also exploring why Herstory, directed by female filmmaker Shao Yihui, has achieved such acclaim in an industry flooded with female-themed works—highlighting the significant role women play both on and off the screen.

Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

<Previous Article In Volume
Next Article In Volume>
Volume Title
Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
31 December 2025
ISBN
978-2-38476-511-9
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_8How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2025 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Luning Wang
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - Exploring the Awakening of Female Consciousness in Chinese Women’s Cinema through Feminist Film Criticism Theory——A Case Study of Herstory
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 58
EP  - 68
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_8
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_8
ID  - Wang2025
ER  -