William Faulkner and the Dichotomy of the American South: The discriminatory social conditions of Yoknapatawpha County from a Kierkegaardian and Sartrean existentialist approach
Authors
Frederiksen, Amalie Rusborg ; Jespersen, Dorte
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2016
Submitted on
2016-01-04
Pages
98
Abstract
William Faulkner, en forfatter fra den amerikanske Syden, brugte det fiktive Yoknapatawpha County til at undersøge en dyb social splittelse: den hvide mands autoritet over for mennesker skubbet ud i periferien—sorte (i hans samtid omtalt med den historiske betegnelse 'Negro'), fattige og kvinder. Dette speciale analyserer, hvordan hans romaner fremstiller denne kløft som en del af en kulturel arv præget af racisme, diskrimination på baggrund af klasse og sexisme. Faulkner forbinder arven med internaliseret skyld—'synder der går i arv'—og med fortvivlelse, som tilsammen bremsede Sydens udvikling efter Borgerkrigen. Vi gennemfører en tekstanalyse af Flags in the Dust (2012), As I Lay Dying (2004), Light in August (2005) og Absalom, Absalom (2005), og bruger The Sound and the Fury (1995) som sekundærlitteratur. Vores vigtigste teoretiske perspektiver er Søren Kierkegaards idé om det fortvivlede selv og Jean-Paul Sartres begreb Blikket (hvordan andres blik former ens identitet), suppleret af W.E.B. Du Bois' dobbelte bevidsthed og Simone de Beauvoirs teori om det andet køn. Vi finder, at Faulkner skildrer sydstatsidentiteten som fastlåst, mens omverdenen bevæger sig mod mere moderne og humanitære standarder. I hans fiktion tynges hvide sydstatsborgere af skyld, og sorte, fattige og kvindelige karakterer lever under stramme begrænsninger; begge forhold skaber fortvivlelse og får reel forandring til at føles næsten umulig. Samtidig antyder Faulkner, at denne arv må konfronteres, hvis Syden skal kunne udvikle sig på linje med resten af USA.
William Faulkner, a novelist from the U.S. South, used the fictional Yoknapatawpha County to explore a deep social divide: the authority of white men versus people pushed to the margins—Black people (referred to in his time with the historical term 'Negro'), poor people, and women. This thesis analyzes how his novels portray that divide as part of a cultural inheritance marked by racism, class discrimination, and sexism. Faulkner links this inheritance to internalized guilt—the 'sins of the father'—and to despair, which together stalled the South’s development after the Civil War. We conduct a textual analysis of Flags in the Dust (2012), As I Lay Dying (2004), Light in August (2005), and Absalom, Absalom (2005), and we use The Sound and the Fury (1995) as secondary literature. Our main theoretical lenses are Søren Kierkegaard’s idea of the despairing self and Jean-Paul Sartre’s concept of the Look (how being seen by others shapes identity), supported by W.E.B. Du Bois’ double consciousness and Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of the second sex. We find that Faulkner depicts Southern identity as stagnant while the wider world moves toward modern, more humane standards. In his fiction, white Southerners are weighed down by guilt, and Black, poor, and female characters live under harsh limits; both conditions produce despair and make meaningful change feel impossible. Yet Faulkner also suggests that confronting this legacy is necessary if the South is to progress in step with the rest of the United States.
[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]
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