Women who are at the edge of the patriarchal system have existed in the patriarchal society as “secondary” and “accessory” for thousands of years. Although the changes of the times have given modern women a broader world, the progress of the material society and the opportunity to receive education have expanded their horizons and awakened their self-awareness and self-seeking. However, with the emergence of this new trend, women's embarrassment between self and love deepens, and it is difficult for them to strike a balance between the two, that is, to give up the self to play a traditional female role, which is called "good wife and good mother"; either abandon love and family, change the traditional female role. The two are considered imperfect, and they are kind of a defective living state of women, so they both bring endless troubles and confusion to women living in different states. This is also the choice that every woman will face. This article focuses on the heroines of the two outstanding film works born in the late 1980s, also in the context of the flourishing development of postmodern feminism. Although the two roles, Francesca and Joanna, are both performed by the famous American Hollywood actress Meryl Streep, they make different choices which lead their life on two different ways when they face two the same family dilemmas.

At present, with the development of the times, feminism has become a hot topic today, more and more people are concerned about feminism, and more and more researchers are concerned about the influence of feminism on literary works. There have been numbers of academic articles analyzing these two works from the perspective of feminism. Most of the articles start from the perspective of feminism or postmodern feminism, contact the background of the film's creation, and analyze the character of Francesca and Joanna and the social influence of the work in this era. For instance, the paper Postmodern Feminism in The Bridges of Madison County, written by Zheng Min and Feminism in the film "The Kramer", written by Yang Junhua, both of them analyze the two characters from the perspective of feminism and postmodern feminism, and talk about the two love stories according to the heroin Francesca and Joanna and analyze the contradiction and perplexity in their inner world. In particular, for the film Kramer vs. Kramer, there are also a small number of articles that stand in the perspective of marriage and love and family view, and draw the enlightenment of the character on modern marriage and family life, such as The Enlightenment of the Film "The Kramer" on Modern Life, written by Cai Honyu and Ji Zhenting. As the divorce rate in China has risen, marriage and family have gradually become social issues of concern. In the context of such an era, this article analyzes the enlightenment of the film Kramer vs. Kramer on modern life from the perspective of marriage and family, and examines and considers the marriage and family of modern people. Even though there are many studies on the two works, no one has paid attention to the relationship and difference between these two female characters and comprehensively studied them.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

Research targets and the content of study:

This paper mainly focuses on two films starring Meryl Streep. In the late 1980s, there was a trend of postmodern turn within feminism, forming postmodern feminism. During this period, many outstanding post-modernist literary and artistic works have emerged prominently. The film The Bridges of Madison County and the Kramer vs. Kramer are two of them. Standing at the crossroads in life, whether or not to look for a new life, the two women make different choices. This article will focus on the images of two heroines, Francesca and Joanna, in The Bridges of Madison County and Kramer vs. Kramer from the perspective of postmodern feminism, analyze the contradictions and confusions they face and the reasons for their different choices and explore the embodiment of postmodern feminism in the two stories.

The first part of this article is an introduction to postmodern feminist theory. The second part is a separate introduction to the two films. The third part is an analysis of two female characters. The fourth part is the connection and analysis of these two female characters. The last part is the conclusion.

Research Methods:

Methods will be taken in this paper going as follows: library or secondary research, case study, descriptive research and experience summary. The steps of analyses are searching the information, sorting out materials, drafting the outline, writing the paper, amending the paper, and finishing the paper.

[1] Huang Rongsheng.A Postmodernist Analysis of The Bridges of Madison County[D]. Shanghai Normal University, 2002.

[2] Lin Lidan.From Feminism to Postfeminism:Woolf,Drabble,and Carter[J]. English and American Literary Studies,2012,(1):15-27.

[3] Mandelbaum, T. Psychological tasks associated with divorce: Eat, pray, Love (2010), An Unmarried Woman (1978), and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)[J].American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2011,71(2): 121-133