双性同体的必然失败-卡森.麦卡勒斯的《伤心咖啡馆之歌》之歌中的性别与身份_英语论文

The Failure of Androgyny: Gender and Identity in Carson McCullers’s “The Ballad of Sad Café”

摘要

森麦卡勒斯是20世纪美国南方小说的著名作家之一，其中《伤心咖啡馆之歌》是她的一部代表作。一直以来，学术界对伤心的研究主要集中在作品孤独、疏离的主题上，随着女性主义的兴起和发展，研究者开始把目光放在关注小说人物的性别特征上，讨论两性之间的关系。本文将从双性同体这一角度来分析女主人公艾米利亚的形象性格成因以及她在父权社会压迫下的抗争。在父权社会，双性同体形象是不被容忍的存在，性别身份的矛盾终将给人带来困惑和痛苦。

本文将从以下几个方面来分析，第一章，主要介绍卡森.麦卡勒斯和她的作品，以及双性同体观的介绍；第二章主要分析女主人公艾米利亚双性同体的成因以及特征表现；第三章主要分析艾米利亚以双性同体形象对父权社会的抗争；第四章分析她在男权社会中注定失败的原因和失败的影响；第五章，总结了双性同体形象在父权社会是不被大众接受的，而且这一矛盾的性别特征只能带来悲剧。

关键词：伤心咖啡馆之歌；双性同体；女性主义；艾米利亚

Abstract

Carson McCullers, whose representative works was The Ballad of the Sad Café and other Stories, was one of the most famous writers of southern fictions in the 20th century. The criticism mainly concentrated on the theme of McCullers’ work and discussed loneliness and spiritual isolation. With the growth of second wave feminist movement in late 20th century, researchers started to pay more attention to the gender identity of the characters in the novella and to study gender relations. Carson McCullers was good at portraying the androgynous female characters. This thesis aims to analyze Miss Amelia, a capable and wealth woman in “The Ballad of the Sad Café”. From the perspective of feminism and androgyny, this thesis tries to discuss the reasons of Miss Amelia’s androgyny, her protest against the patriarchal society and her miserable life under the patriarchy persecution. This thesis will proclaims that androgyny cannot be tolerated in the male-dominated society and the paradox of gender identity will bring perplexity and agony.

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is a brief introduction to Carson McCullers and “androgyny”; chapter two analyzes the reason and characteristics of Miss Amelia’s androgyny; chapter three is mainly about Miss Amelia’s rebellion to the patriarchal society; chapter four claims Miss Amelia’s failure in a male-dominated society; and chapter five draws the conclusion that androgyny cannot be accepted by the whole society and can bring tragedies to the protagonist when the society promotes male authority.

Keywords：The Ballad of the Sad Café；Androgyny；Feminism；Miss Amelia

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Literature Review 1

1.2 Androgyny: Contradictory Existence 4

2. The Androgynous Image of Miss Amelia 5

2.1 The Background of Miss Amelia’s Androgyny 5

2.1.1 The Historical Background of Carson McCullers 5

2.1.2 Gender Identity of Miss Amelia 6

2.2 The Display of Miss Amelia’s Androgyny 7

2.2.1 Miss Amelia’s masculinity 7

2.2.2 Miss Amelia’s Femininity 8

2.3 Inner Entanglement of Androgyny 8

3. Struggle for Identity 10

3.1 Oppression from Patriarchal Society 10

3.2 A Resistance to Male-dominated Society 11

3.2.1 The protest against the marriage system 12

3.2.2 The Protest against Marvin Macy 13

4. Failure in the Patriarchal Society 14

4.1 The Reasons of Failure 14

4.1.1 The Oppression from the Patriarchal Society 14

4.1.2 The Betrayal of Cousin Lymon 14

4.2 A Doomed tragic Fate 15

5. Conclusion 17

References 18