Spacial Discipline in Carson McCullers’s The Ballad of the Sad Café

摘要

Mainly applying Michel Foucault’s idea about spacial discipline plus gender studies,in particular,of the correlation between gender and space as well as the power hierarchy in the distribution of space,this paper analyzes the female protagonist Miss Amelia in Carson McCullers’s The Ballad of the Sad Café.This paper argues that Amelia utilizes space as a means of self-empowerment,challenging the conventional gender dichotomy sanctioned by patriarchal norms.However,her spacial transgression is seen as a deconstruction of gender conventionality and causes masculine crisis as embodied by the male characters Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon.As spacial discipline is collaboratively exerted by Macy and Lymon on Amelia to“correct”her transgression,Amelia finally concedes defeat and submits to patriarchal gender norms.