On The Black Humor Features In The Ballad Of Sad Café

As a literal term, black humor is first proposed by the French writer Andre Breton in1945. And then black humor as a literary school appears and booms in the second half of the20th century in American literature, especially in the south literature which owns the humor traditions in ancient times.Carson McCullers is one of the most outstanding woman writers in American South literature in the20th century. With the perpetual theme of loneliness and isolation, Carson McCullers gains international reputation in the field of literature. Due to the specific historical period and literary traditions of American South as well as the unique personal experiences, Carson McCullers develops and manifests her remarkable tragicomic vision of life in her literary creations. As her most famous novella, The Ballad of Sad Café abounds with a deep sense of black humor. In both laughter and tear Carson McCullers shows her deep comprehension and care for the modern people.The studies about Carson McCullers at home and abroad mainly focus on her theme of loneliness. While this thesis tries to explore this novella in a different way, in order to make a thorough comprehension to Carson McCullers and provide a new viewpoint to academic research. It tries to explore the black humor features in her novella The Ballad of Sad Café from the distinct traits in the respects of writing style and tragic theme.This thesis consists of three parts, namely, introduction, main body, and conclusion.The first part is introduction which covers the presentation of Carson McCullers’s life experiences and master works; studies and comments on her novella The Ballad of Sad Café in abroad and domestic; the innovation of this thesis.The second part is the main body, which includes three chapters:The first chapter focuses on the elaboration of the black humor from the aspects of its definition, social and theoretical basis of its appearance, and its artistic features; Carson McCullers’s tragicomic vision of life in her literary creations.The second chapter makes a further analysis on the embodiment of black humor features in writing styles in the novella The Ballad of Sad Café. The skillful application of anti-heroes, such as the masculine woman-Miss Amelia who owns the dual characteristics both in gender and personality; the rogue-Marvin Macy with the characteristics of immorality and evil; the hunchback Lymon acts as a trickster and clown; the dreary and gothic setting renders a gloomy atmosphere for the tragic ending of the story; the comic treatment of the violence and tragic material; the symbolic meaning of the Café. All of these features in the writing styles coordinate with the features of black humor works. Thus, the sense of black humor abounds in this novella.The third chapter intends to analyze the reflection of black humor features on the theme of the novella The Ballad of Sad Café. Existentialism as the most significant theoretical basis exerts great influence on black humor works especially the aspect of the theme. As one of the leading figures of Existentialism, Camus indicates his unique viewpoint of human existence in the modern world. In his opinion, the existence of human beings and the whole world is absurd and meaningless. His theory of Absurdity is frequently used in the theme of Existentialism and black humor works. In this novella, Carson McCullers displays the absurdity of unrequited love and boring living condition as well as the isolated state of the modern society, which finally lead to the protagonists’ losing and crisis of identity. It seems that any struggles against the isolation is useless, human can not escape the destiny of eternal loneliness in the absurd world.The third part is conclusion which indicates that the black humor features abound in Carson McCullers’s novella The Ballad of Sad Café on the summary of the contents above. In a deeper sense, with the comic treatment of the tragedy, Carson McCullers shows her profound humanistic solicitude for human beings in the modern society.