A Study On Costume Culture In Bobbie Ann Mason’s Novels

Bobbie Ann Mason is a famous contemporary American novelist.This thesis mainly focuses on her novella collections Shiloh and Other Stories and her novel In Country.The fashion theories will be used to illustrate the gender and generation issues in the books.The first chapter will focus on the two roles of Mason’s costume writing,and one role is to help record the changes of gender relations with the help of the story backgrounds.This section includes two changes of women’s sexuality,including the change of women’s way of dressing and the change of their way of thinking.Another role is to record social revolutions including pacifism,“counter culture”,and consumerism.The second chapter focuses on analyzing some psychological issues of Mason’s costume writing,discussing the psychology of Emmett and Sam in In Country and some other characters in Shiloh and Other Stories when they choose certain clothes.The third chapter will focus on costume sociology to analyze the above characters’ costumes,summarizing two trends which connect to gender and generation respectively.In all,the costumes in Mason’s works can tell readers that women characters in In Country and Shiloh and Other Stories are gradually gaining power in their family,and the masculinity of men are weakening which is also reflected by costumes.For women characters like Sam and Irene,they become free to wear trousers or short skirts,while men’s abundant clothes histories developing in the past can not be seen in Mason’s works.Moreover,dressing styles of different generations are intertwining with each other,and fashion is like a circle.What’s more,this thesis also has practical meaning that it will help the research on the development of costume and society,as well as the fashion industry.