Carson McCullers And The Tradition Of American Gothic Fiction

This thesis is a study of the relationship between Carson McCullers' works and the tradition of American gothic fiction from three aspects, i.e. the tradition of American gothic fiction, the gothic elements in Carson McCullers' works and her innovation to the tradition of American gothic fictionAs an artistic style, "gothic" is mainly used to describe the architecture of the Medieval Times. This style is highly praised for its special artistic flavor. It spread quickly in Europe and was adopted in many other fields soon. As a new literary genre, "gothic fiction" first appeared in late-18^th-century England and immediately became integrated with traditional English romantic literature. Gothic fiction received warm applause and spread at a fast speed in other countries.Deeply influenced at once by European gothic fiction and traditional American culture, such as manor system and Puritanism, American native gothic fiction appeared. Then it spread quickly in 1940s and 1950s. Some southern American writers, taking root in their profound local culture, made great contributions to American gothic literature. Focused on the complicated feelings of people in all walks of life in particular American southern society, their novels are a panorama of historical events that happened in the south.Among the southern American writers, Carson McCullers was widely recommended for the unique artistic style of her novels in literary circle. McCullers' creation inherited the good tradition of American southern literature and absorbed some basic elements of American gothic novel, i.e. small remote towns as the settings of most of her stories; freaks and disables as the heroes or heroines and grotesque plots with a tone of sentiment.Carson McCullers not merely embraced the essence of traditional American literature, but also made some breakthroughs: various motifs coexist in the same novel; her plots are full of dramatic conflicts and tragic sentiment; her characters are round and full of life; the structures of her works are more delicate; the employment of more than one artistic technique makes her novels more vivid and moving.