摘要

《伤心咖啡馆之歌》是卡森•麦卡勒斯（Carson McCullers, 1917-1967）的著名的中篇力作。她是20世纪美国最重要的作家之一，并被当代美国批评家瓦特•爱伦称为“仅次于福克纳的南方最出色作家”。这部小说是麦卡勒斯的最为中国人熟悉的一部作品。中外很多评论家都对本部小说进行了分析并得出了各自不同的研究结果。

本文主要以米德的自我理论这一心理学概念为依据，在充分了解和分析这三个人物的性格特征以及其不同的人生经历的基础上，来分析小说中两种爱情（即女主人公爱米丽亚对小驼背的爱情以及小驼背对爱米丽亚前夫马文•马西的感情）,从而得出这两组关系的相同点与不同点，最后得出结论，爱米利亚和小驼背对各自爱情的追求实际上是他们追求自我的统一的过程。而马文•马西则破坏了这两人追求的梦想，一方面他不顾爱米利亚对小驼背的依赖与爱慕，利用小驼背对自己的崇拜来破坏了爱米利亚的生活，同时也破坏了爱米利亚追求的自我的统一；另一方面，他也破坏了小驼背对自我统一追求的梦想，虽然小驼背最终跟着马西走了，但是他却成了马西利用的对象。

关键词：《伤心咖啡馆之歌》，卡森•麦卡勒斯，自我理论，米德

ABSTRACT

“The Ballad of the Sad Café” is a famous novella of Carson McCullers (1917-1967) who is one of the most famous writers in America in the 20th century. Many domestic and foreign critics have done researches and provided different views on this novella.

In light of George Herbert Mead’s “I” and “Me” theory and on the basis of a thorough understanding and analysis of different characteristics and life experience of these three characters: Miss Amelia, Cousin Lymon and Marvin Macy, this thesis aims to do research on two love relations — one between Miss Amelia and the hunchback, and the other between the hunchback and Marvin Marcy. Through all those analyses, we can know the similarities and differences between these two love relations. The pursuits of love are the processes for Miss Amelia and Cousin Lymon to pursue the unification of their own “I” and “Me”. On the contrary, Marvin Macy is a destroyer who has destroyed both Amelia and the hunchback’s pursuit. On one hand, he has destroyed Amelia’s life by using the hunchback’s admiration for him; on the other hand, he destroyed the hunchback’s love and life and made the hunchback to be vagrant again.

Key Words: “The Ballad of the Sad Café”, Carson McCullers, “I” and “Me” theory, George Herbert Mead

1  Introduction

“The Ballad of the Sad Café” is a famous novella of Carson McCullers (1917-1967) who is one of the most influential American novelists of the twentieth century. Her first novel, “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” which explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South, became a literary sensation when she was only twenty-three. Since that time, her reputation has grown with every successive work which deals with a wide scope of personal and social issues in other geographical locations. Such novels as “Reflections in a Golden Eye”, “The Member of the Wedding” and “Clock Without Hands” have won her comparison with such diverse masters as Melville, Flaubert and Faulkner — which is to say, no critic has succeeded in easily integrating the full dimensions of her talent.