An Unconquerable Spiritual Predicament:Loneliness In The Novels Of Carson Mccullers And Su Tong

“The lonely hunter” Carson McCullers in the south of America in the twentieth century and SU Tong,one of the representatives of the “avant-garde” literature in contemporary China,in spite of great differences in times and cultures,share their common concern of the loneliness of marginalized characters in their respective isolated southern worlds that were in the process of further modernization.Studies on the two writers have mainly focused on their respective works and comparative study is quite scarce.Comparative study on the theme of loneliness in their novels is even less.Based on the thematology in comparative literature,this thesis intends to make a parallel study on the theme of loneliness in their novels.By close reading of the selected works,the thesis aims to unravel the representation of loneliness in their novels,analyze similarities and differences in their loneliness writing and explore the realistic and aesthetic significance of their writing of loneliness.The introduction part begins with a close analysis of the related studies on the theme,and clarifies the significance and methodology of this study.Chapter one analyzes the textual representation of loneliness from marginalized characters and southern worlds.The thesis thinks characters are isolated and marginalized in their common pursuit of belonging,love and spiritual sustenance,which gives rise to their loneliness.Moreover,the southern worlds they created based on their hometowns are endowed with the common elements of isolation,industrialization and violence though they are different in many ways.Chapter two focuses on the keyword of“subversion” with the help of Bakhtin's theory of carnivalization.The author of this thesis finds that lonely people are not confined in the cell of loneliness all the time,instead they always attempt at subversion of loneliness through the way of carnivalization and the way of escape.However,the characters' subversion of loneliness is doomed and they are trapped in deeper loneliness once again.Therefore,based on Fromm's theory on loneliness and alienation,chapter three analyzes the causes of the failed subversion of loneliness from the perspective of social oppressionand personal plight to reveal that characters are caught in unconquerable spiritual predicament eventually.The concluding part is a comprehensive comparison of the two writers;it summarizes the common pattern of “loneliness-subversion of loneliness-failure” and the different artistic techniques of the representation of loneliness in their novels,discloses the universality and inevitability of loneliness,and analyzes the realistic and aesthetic significance of the writing of loneliness.On the one hand,their common humanistic and thought-provoking concerns about the spiritual predicament and existential crisis of human beings provide us with the indispensable mirror to reflect on human spiritual condition in contemporary times.On the other hand,loneliness in their novels furthers to deepen and enrich the writing of loneliness in world literature;the application of images in SU Tong's novels and the concern of the grotesques,especially androgynous characters in McCullers' s works both present their uniqueness and aesthetic values in loneliness writing.