An Analysis Of The Traumatic Themes In Carson McCullers's Novels

Carson McCullers has been regarded as one of the most significant Southern female writers in the 20th century American literary history.She enjoys a high reputation for her unique artistic style,special perspectives of works,skillfully artistic expression and profound ideological connotation.And most of her works vividly reflect different kinds of trauma in her real-life.Trauma theory emerges in the early 1990s in America.The famous trauma scholar Cathy Caruth holds that the traumatized victims will be seriously impacted psychologically by the traumatic event.Another representative Judith Herman thinks that it is critically important for the victims to renew connection with the world if they want to be recovered from trauma.While the process of literary creation is also a way of connecting with the others,which can be regarded as a process of expressing oneself and healing writer's trauma.Therefore,on one hand,the reflection of her traumatic experience in her works helps McCullers express her pains and sufferings and then gain inner peace or relief through writing.On the other hand,through reading the others' traumatic stories,the traumatized reader can re-experience his physical or mental trauma,which gives vent to his agony and help him reconsider the meaning or the value of life.However,trauma theory is seldom employed to analyze the traumatic theme in McCullers's works,which results in the ignorance of the positive significance of the traumatic themes.Hence,based on the former research achievements,this thesis chooses McCullers's three representative works The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,The Ballad of Sad Cafe and Reflections in a Golden Eye as examples to interpret their traumatic themes.Under the perspective of trauma theory,the thesis firstly analyzes the characters' traumatic experience and their traumatic symptoms,and then explores how these traumatized characters go through their traumatic experience and gain self-salvation.The traumatic themes in McCullers's works can be regarded as a kind of artistic expression of her experience.The three chosen works have vividly reflected the reality of American soutraumatic th and the writer's traumatic experience through depicting the deformed bodies,un-reciprocal love,the misfortune of marriage,the long-existed racial discrimination in American south,and the cruelty of capitalist exploitation.McCullers attempts to recover from her own trauma by keeping writing,and her fictional characters also try to obtain recovery through talking and renewing connections with others.This study can not only help readers further understand McCullers and her works but also attract public attention to trauma issues and help readers cope with trauma positively.