美国南方文学作品中的暴力与怪诞-英语语言文学专业毕业论文.docxVIP

i i Acknowledgements The present thesis owes its existence to a number of persons, from whom I have benefited boundlessly throughout the whole process of its composing. Without their constant support and encouragement, the accomplishment of the present thesis would have been improbable. To begin with, in the course of composing this thesis, I owe special appreciation to my respected supervisor Associate Professor Qi Tao, without whose guidance, encouragement and patience, my thesis could not have been as what it is now. And his attitudes towards academic research will definitely exert a great influence on my career in the future. My thanks also go to Professor Hong Zengliu, Prof. Chen Zhengfa, and Prof. Chen Bing for I benefit a lot from their erudite knowledge and their serious attitudes toward academic research. Furthermore, I am grateful to all the teachers and administrative staff in our School of Foreign Studies, whose help, either in academic or other respects, makes me feel the warmth of our School, a big family. Last but not least, I am much indebted to my beloved family whose unselfish love helps me to overcome all the hardship in the course of writing this thesis. ii ii Abstract One of the most distinguished features of Southern Renaissance is its preoccupation with violence and grotesque, a phenomenon generally referred to as Southern Grotesque or Southern Gothic. Among the school of writers, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Carson McCullers are the chief representatives. They combine comic or obscene exaggeration with sometimes gratuitous violence, often within representations of physical deformity or sexual deviance. In the existing studies, most scholars generally approach the issue from the perspective of family, religion, personal experiences and the culture of honor, trying to reveal its nature and function, and the reasons for its prominence in Southern literature. The present thesis endeavors to explore, mostly from the socio-economic perspecti