is Carson McCullers’s third full-length novel. Published in 1946, it followed the smashing success of her debut

(1940) and 1941’s controversial

.

has occasioned a significant amount of critical scholarship, and also bears the distinction of having been adapted more times than any of her other works. The novel centers on an androgynous twelve-year-old white girl named Frankie Addams – a descendant of

’s resident tomboy Mick Kelly, we might say – who struggles with adolescence in a small Southern town. However, like the majority of McCullers’s work, the novelconcerns itself more broadly with repressive social structures and the plight of the outcast under such structures.

The

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Citation: Seymour, Nicole. "The Member of the Wedding". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 June 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=146, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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