The Queer Characterization And Pursuit In Rubyfruit Jungle

Rita Mae Brown(1944-)is an American writer,activist,and feminist.She is also a mystery writer and screenwriter.Brown has written numerous works like mystery novels,romance novels and women's fiction,as well as other genres like screenplays,poetry and the Runnymede,Mrs.Murphy and Jane Arnold series.Besides,Brown has been highly active in political movements,including civil rights,anti-war?gay liberation and feminism.Rubyfruit Jungle is one of the greatest lesbian novels ever written by Rita Mae Brown.The novel which sets in America in the 1950s and 1960s chronicles the life experience of a lesbian named Molly Bolt.This fiction is regarded by many scholars as a representative work of homosexual literature.In this novel,Brown portrays a completely different character from the past.By describing the protagonist,Brown criticizes and challenges heterosexual hegemony and gender dichotomy.The study of homosexual literature provides a new perspective for people to look at the world.As far as Rubyfruit Jungle is concerned,its research is even more critical because the existence of lesbian itself is a challenge to heterosexual hegemony.This kind of research contributes to understand the diversity of sexual orientation and the multiple sources of physical pleasure.At present,there is little research and attention to Rubyfruit Jungle.This thesis analyzes the oppression of gender and sexual orientation existing in the novel by using the relevant viewpoints of queer theory.It is hoped that this research will attract more and more people's attention to this work.This thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter mainly introduces the writer Rita Mae Brown and her work Rubyfruit Jungle,Rubyfruit Jungle's research status at home and abroad,and also introduces the definition,origin and development of queer theory in detail and its main ideas.The second chapter mainly analyzes the queer characterization in Rubyfruit Jungle.This chapter firstly analyzes how the protagonist Molly shakes the stability of the heterosexual natrix and constructs her homosexual identity to illustrate the challenge to heterosexual hegemony in Rubyfruit Jungle.Secondly,the analysis of the characters,gender temperament explains the fluidity and the performativity of gender identity.This summarizes the characters' challenge to gender dichotomy.The third chapter mainly analyzes the consistency between the goal pursued by Molly and the queer theory's goal to build a harmonious,equal and free social atmosphere.This chapter first introduces the racial discrimination and class division existing in the novel.By analyzing Molly's challenge to these classifications and her resistance to all kinds of discrimination and prejudice,this chapter explores the narrowness and limitation of the practice of making classification.The thesis points out the queer's goal of building an equal society,which is embodied in Rubyfruit Jungle.Secondly,it analyzes the consistency of characters' pursuit of sexual and gender freedom and the goal which is advocated by queer theory.The conclusion part summarizes the consonance between Rubyfruit Jungle and queer theory.In the challenge of heterosexual hegemony,Molly,the protagonist,defies the norms of patriarchal society and constructs her own homosexual identity.In challenging the gender dichotomy,Molly blurs the boundary of gender and negates the binary of gender.In the analysis of queer's goal,Molly,as a queer,breaks and frees from the shackles of gender,race and class,and has the courage to pursue equality and freedom.All in all,Rubyfruit Jungle conveys the yearning and pursuit for a free,equal life and enlightens people to be true self for a happy life.