On The Deconstruction Of The Myth Of Southern Lady By Welty's Novel

Eudora Welty is a famous American Southern writer,known as “one of the best American novelists in the twentieth Century”.Welty was educated in college and had a Job of journalism,She has extensive reading interest,and maintain a passion for writing for a long time,which make her become a new woman in the south,So she has a different understanding of the women from the southern tradition.Many domestic and international researchers have carried out multi-angle and multi-level explanations on her novels.Based on the existing achievements,the thesis puts Welty in the context of regional culture and female identity and analyzes how her novels have realized the deconstruction of the myth of southern lady.The thesis includes three parts: introduction,text and conclusion.On the introduction part,the thesis firstly make a brief outline of Welty and her accomplishments of writing,and review domestic and international research achievement,and indicate the points that need to be studied.Secondly,the thesis clarifies Welty as a writer concerned with southern women how to cast her feminine consciousness in literary creation.The text includes five chapters.The first chapter is “Welty and the myth of the southern lady”.This chapter firstly explores the living circumstances and conditions of women in the American southern culture,and then analyzes the reasons for the formation of the myth of the southern lady from three aspects of economics,religion and racial relations,pointing out that Welty's creation opened the veil of the southern lady and broke the imagination and regulation of women in the patriarchal world.The second chapter is “the wandering of the perspective of female narration and the patriarchy”.Welty portrays a hero like Zeus and also a meanderer for freedom in the novel,and then reveals his false and ruthless from the perspective of women;Also from the female perspective,Welty points out that the aim of the male roam is to escape the family responsibility,Which dissolve the meaning of the male roam.Through the reflection and deconstruction of the male authority,Welty reveals the historical construction of the male authority.The third chapter is “subverting the image of the lady in the male discourse”.As a lady is a universal requirement for women in the southern society,Which stipulates virtue and chastity as the primary value of women and embodies the value of women in the view of patriarchy.In the Welty's works,it is difficult to see such a beautiful female image.We can only see “saint mother” imprisoned in the family,“cultivated lady”and all kinds of grotesque lady.The women in Welty's works subverts the female image in the male discourse,Which reveals the falsehood of the myth of the southern lady.The fourth chapter is “deconstructing the metaphor of the female body in the southern culture”.In the southern culture,chastity is an extremely harsh moral statute for women.However,Welty's works allow us to see the paradox of this moral statute: on the one hand,it attaches importance to the chastity of women,and on the other hand,when the male destroys the chastity of women in the way of rape,it does not see it.Welty challenges the false myth of chastity in the south,Which manifests the normal sexual desire of women,and realizes the aim of cultural subversion and self exploration with the female body.The fifth chapter is “reshaping the new women in the South”.While revealing the falsehood of the myth of southern lady,Welty has also created many new women in the south.They realize that the culture of lady is only the trick of patriarchy,so they fight against the boundaries of the patriarchal culture,or seek freedom and recognize themselves in the way of roaming,or rebirth from the power of love.Through this kind of female image,Welty affirmed the new qualities that women should possess under the new social conditions.The conclusion is a brief summary of Welty's creation,and expounds the enlightenment of her feminine writing to modern people.