Gender Anxiety And Subversion: Southern Females’ Self-Salvation In The Golden Apples

Eudora Welty,as a rising star of the American Southern Renaissance,has always been regarded as one of the most important female writers in contemporary America.As a southern female writer,she has unveiled the lives of people in this land through her delicate and crafted literary creations.Due to her insightful and atheistic depiction of the Deep South,she is often deemed as the Chekov on the American literary soil.Welty’s third short story collection,The Golden Apples,as the beloved of the writer herself and for its excellent unity of structure,profound combinations of myths,and elusively crafted characters,it has long been the focal point of scholarly attention both abroad and at home.Previous studies have mainly concentrated on the myth,themes,characters,and narrative strategies of this short story collection;however,few studies have made a systematic analysis of the issues of gender anxiety and subversion contained in it,which leaves some space for this paper to explore.In this short story collection,southern women strive to rebel against their imposed identity as the Other,to vent their gender anxiety of being objectified and alienated,and to explore their path of self-salvation.Under the general framework of western gender theory,this paper,relying heavily on Kate Millett,Simone de Beauvoir,and Judith Butler’s ideas on feminism,intends to explore the issue of how southern females in The Golden Apples,tormented by their gender anxiety,endeavor to subvert the gender norms to ultimately achieve their self-salvation.This paper consists of four chapters.The first chapter first introduces the reasons for the selection of the topic,including the writer and her works and the literature review of The Golden Apples,and then points out the research purpose,theoretical method and practical significance of this paper.The second chapter uncovers the patriarchal social mechanism that leads to southern females’ gender anxiety.King MacLain and Randall MacLain,by adopting hegemony and sexual violence,try to sustain the ideal masculinity rooted in Morgana,and behind such doing conceals the sexual politics sustained by the patriarchal discourse.Sexual violence is constantly and continuously cited by southern males to strengthen the male-dominated and male-identified patriarchal society,in which southern women are reduced to be the Other and are endlessly and ruthlessly tormented by their gender anxiety as the Other.The third chapter sheds light on southern females’ living predicament since they aregreatly depressed and disturbed by their gender anxiety.Due to their female immanence,southern females,as the Other in the male-centered universe,are disciplined by femininity and further trapped by their maternity,in which case,they are gradually deprived of their female subjectivity.Noticeably,the death of a holy angle and the madness of a female artist have both showcased the existential anxiety and despairing dilemma that they have been confronted with after their self-identity are objectified,distorted,and alienated.The fourth chapter focuses on those rebellious southern females who dare to subvert the gender norms so as to achieve self-salvation.By developing the subversive power contained in their feminine sexuality as well as the resisting power accumulated in their female gaze against the male body,they strive to regain their subjectivity as a self-conscious human being.After their defying refusal to be objectified,they intend to transgress the rigid gender boundary through music and wandering in the hope that they can voice their human experience and deconstruct the enclosed female space so as to redefine their self-identity.From the above analysis,this paper draws the following conclusion: Southern females question and challenge their identity as the Other in a male-dominated society.While they spare no effort to cast the chain of gender anxiety,they constantly redefine and reassert themselves to uphold their female subjectivity.By crossing the gender boundary and subverting the rigid gender norms,they unveil the illusion of the stability of gender identity,showcase the open possibilities of feminine existence,and expand the new territory for women to quest for their self-salvation.