A Study Of Carson Mccullers’s The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter As A Southern Gothic

Southern Gothic, unique to American literature, flourished in the Southern Renaissancebetween the1920s and1930s. Southern Gothic writers employ decadent and enclosed scenes,grotesque characters and bizarre incidents in their works, disclosing the historical evils andassailing the social and cultural ailments that beset the American South. Carson McCullerscan be considered as one of the distinguished American writers of this time.McCullers’s debut masterpiece The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter has long been the subject ofcritical attention since its publication. However, up to now, no one has ever attempted toanalyze it from the perspective of Southern Gothic. This thesis aims to interpret thismasterpiece on the basis of Southern Gothic traditions. Through analyzing its SouthernGothic features embodied in characters and vehicles, Southern Gothic themes includingsmothering racism and haunting loneliness, and the writer’s development of the SouthernGothic traditions in structure and symbolization, the study intends to reveal the unique artisticstrength and charm of McCullers’s Southern Gothic world, and to present her sincereconcerns and sympathies with the southern people and her deep reflection on the complicatedsocial reality of the twentieth century American South.