Abstract: Due to the complexity of modern society and authors, contemporary Chinese writers employ multiple discourses and voices in their autobiographies. The first-person self in autobiography enjoys dual identity, the narrator of the text and a character in the past story, so the narrating self perspective and the experiencing self perspective invariably exist in the retrospective narration. The motifs of enlightenment and nation saving interweave with each other in modern Chinese writers’ mind. The dual roles of “enlightener” and “nation saver” articulate two voices in the text. Living in the semi-feudal society, modern Chinese female writers assume dual identity: as the historical subject in the society and as female, the supposed weak gender in the society. Therefore, their autobiographies articulate the mainstream discourse and imply the implicit female voice.

Key words: the experiencing self，the narrating self，enlightenment，patriarchal voice, sexuality

Lei Ying, Ph.D, teaches at Fuqing Branch of Fujian Normal University. Her research interest is biography study. She is currently involved in the project “Stylistic Research on Modern Autobiography” (JA13360S) funded by Fujian (China) Department of Education in social science.