A Postmodern Feministic Study Of The Thorn Birds

The famous Australian writer Colleen McCullough, whose masterpiece The Thorn Birds published in1977unfolds love experience and fate of the three generations in the Creely family. This thesis focuses on the subversion of the traditional masculinity and feminity viewed from the postmoden feministic perspective.The thesis aims to explore McCullough’s effort and attempt on constructing ideal gender traits and the female subject in the postmodern context.There are three charpters in the body of the thesis answering three questions. How did the traditional masculinity and feminity construct in the western culture? Why is there subversion of them in the text? What’s the value and meaning of the subversion?Charpter One analyses the relationship between gender and gender traits and applies the relative theories of Beavior and Judith Butler to get the conclusion that the traditional gender traits were constructed by imitating and performing.Charpter Two explores the cause of the subversion of traditional masculinity and feminity. It’s the uncertainty and mobility of the gender practice that leads to the construction break.Charpter Three explains author’s purpose of the deconstructing, which lies in constructing the ideal gener traits and the female subject.