| In my thesis, I argue three assertions: (1) that the 21st Century antiheroine who has figured so prominently in literature and film is an evolution of the heroine archetype that combines both the action-oriented traditional male hero archetype and the tragically flawed, antagonistic anti-heroine archetype, (2) that the foundation for this newly modified pop culture antiheroine can be traced back to Margaret Mitchell's iconic character, Scarlett O' Hara, and finally (3) that this new modern heroine archetype, the antiheroine, has become an integral part of popular culture, both in literature and film as well as other popular media. As my primary texts I used Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, the David O. Selznick film of the same title, Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as several other primary and secondary sources, including the published volume of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind related letters. |
