A Study Of Female Gothic In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery And Other Stories

Shirley Jackson has been hailed as the master of American horror fiction in the 20th century.Jackson's short story collection The Lottery and Other Stories published in 1949 is dedicated to the depiction of gothic horror through the commonplace and the trivia in everyday life.This thesis attempts at a research on this collection of short stories from the perspective of female gothic,focusing respectively on female gothic characterization,female gothic horror,and female gothic themes,thereby unveiling the magnetism and charms of Jackson's female gothic.Firstly,Jackson presents the women tragedies,who lived under the bounds and chains of the dominating patriarchal system and the smothering social conventions through depicting the women grotesques and villain heroes.Secondly,the horror in Jackson's short stories is expressed by the depiction of complexity in human relations and frustration in women psyche.At last,the analysis of female gothic themes is unfolded from two perspectives:dissecting the causes of female tragedies and disclosing the duality of female existence in the patriarchal society.The author hopes that the study can serve to provide a new angle to the researches on Shirley Jackson in China,as well as to deepen people's comprehension of her works.