Author(s)

Yuehan Hu

Corresponding Author

Yuehan Hu

ABSTRACT

Richard Brautigan wrote in the 1960s, and his novels contain a large number of female characters, presenting readers with a slight thumbnail of the living conditions of women in the 1960s. In novels such as Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 and In Watermelon Sugar, Brautigan reveals the oppression and contempt of the three heroines, Vida, Margaret, and Pauline, by describing their fates in a male-centric society. At the same time, these three protagonists realize the oppression of male centrism on themselves and their resistance to different degrees. However, unfortunately, their actions of resistance all fail. Given this, this article will use feminist Simone DE Beauvoir’s “the other” point of view and Judith Butler’s theory of “performance” theory to examine the three heroines. To reveal in the male-centered society, they are regarded as the other and their performances in a dilemma. Furthermore, this article will discuss the meaning of their efforts to break the male centralism and to analyze the meaning of women’s rebellion in contemporary society.

KEYWORDS

Brautigan, feminism