Study On Delta Wedding From The Perspective Of Cultural Criticism

Eudora Welty (1909-2001) is considered one of the most prominent writers intwentieth-century America and represents a new generation of Southern writers who helped tomake the literary flowering of Southern Renaissance of the past several decades. She enjoysworld-wide reputation for her remarkable versatility. During her literary career, Welty winsmost of the country’s awards for fictions, including Gold Medal of the National Institute ofArts and Letters as well as the Pulitzer Prize. Her works, especially short stories concentrateon the ups and downs of the Southern family and the domestic triviality, exposing the greatinfluence the changing southern society has made on Southern culture.Delta Wedding, published in1946, is Welty’s first full-length story. Since its publication,it receives praise as well as criticism. The Fairchilds lives an idyllic and isolated life in theDelta Mississippi in the early twentieth century. However, due to the residual influence of theCivil War and World War I, the typical southern big plantation clan is changing stealthily. Theinteractions between body, society and culture are one of the important features of socialpractices. This thesis reads Delta Wedding from the perspective of cultural criticism with bodyas an entry point, demonstrating the dynamic change of Southern America’s culture, theactivities and affections of the people living in the Delta in the early twentieth century,exploring the social and cultural codes body carries, exposing the different characteristics ofchanging culture and better understanding the profound meanings and extensive connotationsof this novel—Delta Wedding.This thesis is divided into three parts beside an introduction and a conclusion.Introduction gives a brief account of Eudora Welty, her works and brief literature review,together with a brief introduction to cultural criticism and explanations of key words as wellas the structure of this thesis.Chapter One elaborates the female’s body demonstrated in Southern lady culture. Thischapter shows Ellen as the plantation’s mistress, carters to all affairs inside and outside of thefamily but due to being pregnant and exhausted, finally faints to the ground. Her self-sacrificing body perfectly represents the Southern lady. But Shelly, the oldest daughter ofthe Fairchilds represents the New Woman of the south. When repeatedly confronting physicalevents, she deeply comprehends what female body suffers and how suppressed their thoughtsis, which affect her value system and furthermore make her resist the traditional lady culture.Chapter Two discusses southern ethnic culture. Racial conflict caused by M’Hook’swounded hand, shows the reader that although the black are not slave any more, their identityis still not admitted by the white-male southern society. The rape of Pinchy, a blackhousemaid conducted by Troy mysteriously and repeatedly shows in the text. However, thefamily conceals this physical event for preserving southern family honor. And physicalcontact between the white and the black is no longer a taboo. George’s tender affection to theblack boys shows a harmonious “giant body” and racial integration has been an irreversibletrend.Chapter Three focuses on marriage of two couples from different social classes in thecontext of family culture. Body is of class character. In the traditional southern society,marriage between different classes is forbidden. In the thesis, the writer tries to analyze themarriage of Dabney and Troy, of Robbie and George, to expose that the plantation family inthe deep Delta is changing.Conclusion summarizes the whole thesis. It exposes traditional women’s adherence toSouthern lady culture and resistance of “New women” to it in the New South; it discusses inthe context of southern ethnic culture, the inevitability of racial conflicts, the value ofsouthern family honor and the irreversible trend of racial integration; it demonstrates thatmarriage of different classes not only has great impact on but also injects new vitality intosouthern family culture. Therefore, this thesis examines the body carried with cultural codesnot only embodying the inheritance and innovation of Southern American culture, but alsodepicting the living condition of the southerners of different time and class, with the purposeof exploring Welty’s poetic pursuit.