Abstract

As one of the greatest playwrights in the 20th century, Tennessee contributes a lot to homosexual literature. Recently, most of the researches focus on women and homosexual characters in his writings, especially in A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie. Similarly, Bai Hsien—yung, a talent in Chinese short stories, has used his own vision to advocate the society to refresh the view on homosexuals’ right of speech. Both of them write in different visions to explore homosexuals’ spiritual world. In view of this, focusing on gay people of different periods among Tennessee’s and Bai’s works and adopting psychoanalysis and symbolism theory, this paper aims at exploring homosexual identity construction through comparing changes of their creating backgrounds, the characteristics of homosexual characters, the relationship between gay people and others and ways of self–atonement, which would promote a better comprehension of these authors’ humanistic care for these people in the third world.
This paper consists of introduction, the body part and conclusion. It firstly deals with a literary review of homosexuals in the two writer’s writings and the structure of this research is offered. Secondly, the body part is divided into three chapters. Chapter one analyzes the characteristics of homosexuals; chapter two discusses the relationship between father and these gay people, and the effects on homosexual identity construction; chapter three explores imagery themes in the work. Finally, based on the previous analyses, the thesis is summarized and conclusion is drawn.

Key words: Tennessee; Bai Hsien—yung; homosexuality; identity construction

摘  要

作为20世纪最伟大的剧作家之一，田纳西为同性恋文学做了伟大贡献。近年来，学术界一直致力于研究他作品中的女性角色和《欲望号街车》、《热铁皮屋顶上的猫》以及《玻璃动物园》中的同性恋角色。拥有相似背景，被誉为“中国短篇小说奇才”的白先勇，用他自己独特的视角倡导社会重新审视同性恋的话语权。两位作家都从不同视角探索了同性恋的精神世界。鉴于此，本文将以他们不同时期作品中有着重要作用的同性恋角色为研究对象，运用精神分析和象征主义，从创作时代的背景变化，同性恋角色的特点，他者与自我的关系以及自我救赎的方法等方面，探索同性恋的身份构建，以此更好地理解这两位作者对第三世界人的人文关怀。
本文由引言、本论、结论三部分组成。首先在引言部分简要介绍对两位作家作品中同性恋角色的研究现状及本研究的思路，其次本论部分分为三章，第一章分析同性恋的特点；第二章讨论父亲和同性恋者的关系以及对同性恋身份构建的影响；第三章探讨作品中的意象主题。最后，论文在回顾全文的基础上总结论点。

关键词：田纳西；白先勇；同性恋；身份构建