Writing From Memory

Katherine Anne Porter is a famous American writer in the twentieth century. With superb writing techniques and unique literary style, she is recognized as an excellent modern American writer. Living in a century of turbulence, sickness and war, Porter had her own special twists and turns which also enriched her life experiences and helped her literary creation. As a delicate and keen observer, Porter extracted sources and nutrients for creation from fertile soil of the reality, thus her fictions were considered either with the autobiographical nature, or extracted out from her personal experience she had seen and heard. However, she did not make just simple statements or copy her experience, but rather wrote creatively based on her memory, thus brought the reality into literature, with delicate description, fully tapped connotations of the characters and in-depth thoughts.This thesis carries out an analysis on Porter's short stories Maria Concepcion, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall and short novels Noon Wine, Pale Horse, Pale Rider. By exploring the influence of Katherine Anne Porter's family background, the world turmoil of the time being, and Porter's love and marriage life, the thesis points out that it is the memories of the author that produce a set of consistent themes in all her writings. There are three major prevailing themes:solitude, love and marriage, death. The thesis also gives a further analysis on Porter's unique writing style of reticence, various speech characteristics of the characters and symbolism. Finally it draws a conclusion that the profound themes in Porter's works were mostly drawn from her own experiences in the twentieth century, yet they are also eternal for human being with a realistic significance.