An Interpretation Of Carson Mccullers’s The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter From The Perspective Of Queer Theory

Carson McCullers (1917-1967) is considered as one of the most significant andinfluential southern women writers of American literary field in1940s. The majorcontribution she has made to literature is her famous novels and short stories which ownmuch to her intuition and keen insight.“Spiritual isolation”, as the frequent theme in most ofher works, has become a key word in the critical essays or comments at home and abroad.Scholars and critics have devoted to the interpretations of McCullers’s works in view of thegrotesque and freakish characters. Due to her contribution and her unique observations, she isranked with Catherine Anne Porter, Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty of her generation.The publication of her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter in1940aroused a greatsensation in American literary field. Since then she has become a new star among southernwriters. Her first novel displays the living conditions of people in an unenlightened smalltown, so the theme of spiritual isolation and loneliness, interpretation of existentialism andmajor characters have been explored, but few essays are persuasive to interpret The Heart Is aLonely Hunter from the perspective of queer theory.Opposed to the dichotomy and hegemonic system, queer theory, advocating freepersonality and unity, respects the marginalized and non-mainstream and encourages them topursue their freedom and personality. The writer engages in rebuilding a harmonious newsouth on this backward land, advocating people to fight against tradition and eliminateinternalized homophobia and shame. This thesis aims to analyze The Heart Is a LonelyHunter in detail to encourage people to bravely articulate their desire or display theirpersonality, which is consistent with principles of queer theory advocating diverse gender andchanging sexual orientations. This thesis mainly consists of three parts: the introduction, the main chapters and theconclusion.The introduction as the first part, consisting of four sub-chapters, briefly introduces theauthor and her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, literature review, historicalbackground, theoretical bases and viewpoints of queer theory and finally the layout andsignificance of this thesis.Chapter One concerns about the reconstruction of gender in the novel, including a briefintroduction of gender dichotomy, diversity of gender, cross-dressing and characters’ revoltagainst society for their personality. Chapter Two concentrates on the reconstruction ofsexuality in the novel, which mainly consists of characters’ deviation from traditionalheterosexuality and construction of homosexuality. Chapter Three concerns aboutencouraging people to bravely articulate desires and realizing their dream to strive for idealharmony. Reconciliation of heterosexuality, perseverant exploration for personality andfreedom and significance of Singer’s death will be analyzed and discussed.The final part comes to a conclusion which summarizes the consistency between queertheory and McCullers’s writing purpose and theme in this novel. Besides, its deficit is alsomentioned here.