1。 Introduction

1。1 Introduction to Margaret Mitchell and Gone with the Wind 

Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone with the Wind, is an American author and journalist, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1900。 In her childhood, she often hears history stories about the Civil War, the tragedy and romance of the Lost Cause told by her grandma and neighbors, which provided abundant resources for the novel。 And her mother usually held meetings of her feminist organization at home，which impressed little Margaret deeply。 Margaret Mitchell adopted her mother's feminist leanings so we can find her idea of women's equality and independence with men in the novel。文献综述

Gone with the Wind is set in Clayton County, Georgia, and Atlanta during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era。 It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of the poverty she finds herself in after Sherman's March to the Sea。 Gone with the Wind was popular with American readers and became the bestselling novel。 Mitchell received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the book in 1937。 However, such a masterpiece won immense popularity but little critical success。 Oxford American Literature Handbook does not mention Gone with the Wind at all，while American Modern Fiction Reviews only mentions the name of this novel and writer．Maybe it’s because of Mitchell’s positive attitudes towards slavery。 So generally speaking, there aren’t so many researches on Gone with the Wind, especially abroad。

1。2 Literature Review 

As a popular but controversial novel, Gone with the Wind has gained some attention from the literary circles。 The following are the main researches on the novel; I roughly pide them into the following aspects: 

1。 Character and theme research。 The research along this line mainly analyzes the main figures in the novel, such as their personality, destiny and so on。 Also, they hold different opinions towards the theme of the novel。 e。g。  “A Fresh Study of Prototype Images and the Theme of Gone with the Wind”, a thesis written by Zhang Daisheng”。 

2。 Cultural research: The research along this line mainly analyzes the slavery, American civil war, Southern traditions, and American spirit。 For example, Luo Dongmei makes an analysis of the realization of American cultural values of inpidualism through the three aspects: Scarlett’s dedication of love, her life courage, and the pursuit of money。

3。 Feminism: This kind of researches mainly makes an analysis from feminist perspective。 For example, Jin Xingmei, applying the feminist theory to come into a conclusion that Scarlett’s changing from “a real lady” to “an entirely new lady”, is the result of the Civil War and the industrialization。 Her tragic result is typical in the contradiction between the traditional moral values and the reality。

4。 New historicism research: New Historicism concentrates on the textual attributes of history while arguing that history is not an objective being but a “historical narrative” or “historiography”。 For example, “New Historical Interpretation of Margaret Mitchell’s Cultural View in Gone with the Wind” by Liu Juan analyzes Mitchell’s personal attitude towards gentleman spirit under the American Civil War, as well as lady style and slavery in that special social environment using the theories of New Historicism。来*自~优|尔^论:文+网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766*

As for my research, it belongs to cultural research。 Many people do researches on the traditional southern spirit or new American spirit。 For example, Sun Tiannan suggests that Scarlett's tragic result should be ascribed to her contradictory lifestyle between traditional moral values and the crack in reality in his paper。 Although the war makes the spiritual and material home of the southern people collapse, they have never given up the most valuable traditions: justice, courage and sense of responsibility, and never given up the regression for traditional ethics and morality。 Furthermore, Qv Yan did a research and analyzed the American spirit from Gone with the Wind。 When the romantic and unrealistic values of the South increasingly hinder the economic development, the South needs a new spirit of capitalism and the new values which guided their actions。 His article uses “American spirit” as a breakthrough and analyzes the influence of American’s spirit on the South。 When people's environment for survival changed, they were confronted with only two roads, adapt to it or run its course。 It is better to change positively instead of being forced to choose。 It is just because Scarlett, as a new southern bourgeois, saw the actual benefits changes would bring about that she consciously struggled with the tradition。