Myth And Displacement

As one of the prominent writers of Southern Renaissance along with William Faulkner,Eudora Welty was born and lived most of her life Jackson in,Mississippi. Although born in the "Old South," she lived through modern period,in "New South." She not only inherits the tradition of the south literature,writing about the similar themes as that of the old generation and in similar techniques,but also has her own unique insight to the fast-changing society and men and women in the new environment.A prolific writer of short stories,novels,biographies and children's book,Welty is noted, among the bulk of her creation,for her short stories.The Golden Apples is the most outstanding short story cycle,and Welty's favorite which fuses the Classical Greco-Roman myth with the reality in American South in the 20^th century.It is often noted for its postmodern techniques,narrative strategy,the south literature features,the function of family and community,or studied from the feminist point of view.It is also noted for the rich myth connotations,but myth is only seen as the structure unifying the seven independent stories thematically.The use of myth and the displacement is never associated with the new background and Welty's identity as a female writer.Based on archetypal theory,this paper will try to analyze the archetypal pattern,the archetypal characters and archetypal images and their displacement in The Golden Apples. Welty displaced the ancient myth to fit the fast-changing modern southern society,and removed the male-god from the center and emphasizcd the importance of females instead.This paper consists of five chapters.Chapter one is the introduction.Welty's literary career and literary review are introduced in this chapter.Chapter two mainly introduces the theory basis -- Northrop Frye's archetypal theory, particularly the literary archetype and the definition of displacement.Chapter three and chapter four are the body.Chapter three mainly talks about the archetypal characters -- King MacLain who corresponds to Zeus and Miss Eckhart who is Medusa in the eyes of the town people. Although like Zeus who is the center of the mythical world,King MacLain is the god-head of the Morgana town,he is depicted comically.While Medusa is so hideous and evil in the ancient myth,Welty actually describes Miss Eckhart as a heroic woman who devotes her life to her artistic career and sheds her blood for the young artist-Virgie Rainey.Chapter four is about the archetypal motifs,mainly the motif of quest and the death-rebirth motif.While the ancient heroes roam and wander,overcoming difficulties to achieve their heroic goals,the wandering of the men in the book is only futile and vain which will only end up dying or returning to the social rules.On the contrary,the women are epic questors who try their best to find their own new identity and independence. Going through death and rebirth,they will carry on questing.Chapter five is the conclusion.Although Welty never sees herself as a feminist,her displacement of the male-centered ancient myth shows that she has put the ancient myth in a changing society to create her own myth about women.