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

Abstract

摘要

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