Abstract

Carson McCullers, one of the most influential writers in America, is an extraordinary woman who leaves us a bundle of splendid novels despite her short and hard life. Writing about outcasts, dreamers and misfits in the Deep South, Carson McCullers was acclaimed for her sympathetic depictions of loneliness, the need for understanding and the search for love. Her masterpieces of eccentrics, failed prodigies, injustice and hope, written when she was in her twenties, explore the human condition with humor and pathos. Standing from the perspective of Bildungsroman and against in the backdrop of the Southern Renaissance, this paper aims to demonstrate that the female protagonists in Carson’s several major works are all positive images of the new south. They do not succumb to patriarchal bonds or lose their identity due to poverty and setbacks. Instead, they all fight and struggle for their dream, just like their creator —— Carson McCullers herself. Though detailed analysis, and focused on the transition of the protagonists respectively, this paper jumps out of conventional viewpoints of gothic or grotesque themes and alienation. Rather, it proposes that from the angle of Bildungsroman, these anti-southern-belle protagonists are a rising and expanding generation in the Southern Renaissance, growing up together with the new south.

Key words: Carson McCullers, Bildungsroman, adolescence, Southern Renaissance

摘要

卡森•麦卡勒斯是美国最富影响力的作家之一。尽管她的一生短暂又多舛，这位杰出的女作家给我们留下一系列卓越的作品。麦卡勒斯善于刻画南方深处的流浪儿，异类，还有梦想家们，因其富有同情心地描写人的孤独，对理解和真爱的渴望而饱受赞誉。在麦卡勒斯20多岁时，她写的一系列探讨怪人、失败的天才、不公、希望的生存状况的杰作既幽默又伤感。在美国南方文艺复兴的背景下，本论文试着从成长小说的角度来证明卡森几部主要作品中的女主人公的积极形象都代表着一个全新的南方。尽管贫穷而饱受挫折，这些女孩没有向父权制社会的束缚低头，也没有失去自我认同。相反的，她们为了自己的梦想而抗争而挣扎，就像她们的创造者卡森•麦卡勒斯一样。通过细致的分析来重点探讨女主人公各自的转变过程,本文摒弃哥特主题和人心疏离的传统观点。笔者转而从成长小说的角度来证明这些反南方淑女形象的主人公们是南方文艺复兴中日益崛起的一股新兴力量，她们和新南方共同成长。

关键词：卡森•麦卡勒斯； 成长小说； 青春期；南方文艺复兴

1.    Introduction
1.1     Background information of Carson McCullers 
Carson McCullers was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia in 1917. McCullers lived a short life, but this did not prevent her from becoming a versatile and talented writer. She wrote some bestsellers, became rich and famous, suffered emotional upheavals, and died at 50. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter came out in 1940 when she was only 23 years old. The early 1940s was her most creative time of writing and she wrote almost all her major works during this time: Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941), The Ballad of the Sad Café (1943), and The Member of the Wedding (1946).