The Gender Politics And Racial Identity In Reflections In A Golden Eye

Carson McCullers(1917—1967) enjoys a significant but controversial position in American Southern Literature of the 20 th century. In her short life, she altogether creates five novels. Reflections in a Golden Eye is her second masterpiece, published immediately after she achieved instant fame. With the post as its background, this novel narrates an intricate entanglement between “two officers, a soldier, two women, a Filipino boy and a horse”. In former researches, critics mainly focused on its theme of “loneliness” and “spiritual isolation”, but somehow neglected the social reality and ideology contained in it. This thesis, from a new perspective, based on the relative theories of New Historicism, probes into “the historicity of text” and “the textuality of history” manifested in this novel, pointing out its purpose of deconstructing the grand history and constructing the subjectivity of the marginalized groups.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One briefly combs McCullers’ s life and her literary achievements, as well as the relative literature review. It also gives a concise introduction of New Historicism, and explains the significance and layout of this thesis. Chapter Two illustrates the impact of the southern regional environment on McCullers’ s creation. In terms of “the historicity of text”, McCullers has a strong historical and cultural consciousness and is accustomed to revealing the ingrained patriarchy and racial ideology in the South. In Reflections in a Golden Eye, this creation concept is given a full play; in terms of “the textuality of history”, the novel pays attention to a murder case hidden in anecdotes and unofficial histories, and reconstructs it into an inconceivable military story. With the multi-narrative perspectives, the linguistic construction of history is presented. Chapter Three surveys its subversion of the traditional rigid gender orientation: Leonora is wild and mavericks, thus deconstructing the female image of “Madonna”; Alison attempts to cross the hedge of patriarchy, which demonstrates her precious feminist consciousness; Penderton, as a secret homosexual, is caught in his psychological crisis and identity anxiety. Through the homogeneity between historical writing and story narration, McCullers breaks the southern traditional binary opposition between male and female, and establishes a fluid and diverse gender pattern. Chapter Four discusses the displacement of master-slave relation, and criticizes the backward value system of white supremacy: Langdon adheres to Essentialism and stresses the “animality” of the colored people, thus trying to regulate the Filipino boy Anacleto; while the latter utilizes the strategy of language to build his self-awareness, and sequentially walks out of the marginal position of “the other”. Chapter Five is the conclusion part. The writer of this thesis deems that Reflections in a Golden Eye fully testifies the equate relation between history and literature. Through their interaction, this novel demonstrates McCullers’ s critical thinking of the southern gender and racial politics and also presents her aspiration for a more diverse and equal society.