The Research Of Colleen Mc Cullough's Literary Creations From The Perspective Of “The Third Space”

To the perspective of postmodernism,this research tries to exam “the third space” in Colleen McCullough's literary works."The Third Space" is an important area of "Space Theories".The introduction introduces the biography experience and literacy creations of Colleen McCullough.And it makes a preliminary statistical analysis about the researches of Colleen McCullough in academia.The main part uses three angles,which are sexuality,race and religion separately,to analyze Colleen's view of gender,perception of race,view on religion and idea of identity in the structure of the theory of “the third space”.All the conclusion is come out through the strategy of close reading of Colleen's writings,such as the biographical novel that is “Morgan's Rush”,two family saga novels which are “The Thorn Birds” and “The Touch”.The first chapter mainly introduces the theory of “the third space” and analyzes the relationship between this theory and Colleen McCullough's creations.Henri Lefebvre has proposed "three element Dialectics of Space" which related to the "spacial otherness" theory.Meanwhile,Michel Foucault has put forward the concept of "heterotopia".Both of them as kinds of enlightenments benefit to Edward William Soja's "the Third Space" theory.In the area of postmodernism,"the Third Space" has been used to analyze the gender,race and cultural politics.Such as Bell Hooks emphasized the marginalisation involves the feminism research.Homi K.Bhabha's theories of "Hybridity" and "Minoritization" have covered the race and cultural politics from the postcolinialism.These enrich the connotation of "the Third Space".The second chapter which is “the third space” in sexuality,female images strive for the power of discourse for female,shows Colleen McCullough's feminist attitude.However,the creation of “middlesex” images,such as Justine,who is a heroine in <the thorn birds> and Neil that is the heroine in <the touch>,cast into doubt over the non feminist inclination.Meanwhile Males which stands man depression are died at last,and those males who are embodied femineity and respected women,implies that man release some power to women.The “middlesex” images which is negotiated by male and female,that is what “the third space” described.The third chapter mainly talks about “the third space” in race.This part takes the Chinese group(include hybrids)in <the touch> and Irish nation in <the thorn birds> as subjects,to find that the hybrid is vulnerable to two kinds of cultures.The hybrid is not only affected by eastern culture,but also is impaired by western culture.Meanwhile,in fact,the identity of hybrid is neither a traditional Chinese,nor the pure White.The Irish immigrants through several generations quest for national identity,finally,the Irish descendants acquire the “diversified”,“hybrid” and “mix” of “the new Australian” identity.That is “both of this,none of this”,and “diversification”,stand for “the third space” in race.The last chapter,according to religious elements in Colleen's works,for example,varies of religions stay in Kinross,conflicts and communication occurred at the same time,it shows that,each religion is a “heterotopia” which allows others in and keeps isolated simultaneously.The deep contradictions between the Deity and humanity cause the love tragedy in <the thorn bird>,not only “dual conflict”,along with deeper analysis,actually we find the tendency of seeking harmonious of both divine and human nature,which matches the quality of “the third space”.The last part of this paper combines the critical views on Colleen McCullough and disputes on "the Third Space",points out the weakness of this research.