1。2 Literature Review

    Since Absalom, Absalom!’s first publication in the year of 1950, Absalom, Absalom! has received an increasing attention from the critical circle。 Unfortunately, because Faulkner was much ahead of his time, he was only regarded as a second class writer and received lots of prejudices and misunderstandings against him in his own country when the book was published。 But with time going on, more and more scholars start to find his genius and talents he showed in Absalom, Absalom! 。 An era of Faulkner is coming。

    Absalom, Absalom! is thought highly by Dirk Kuyk, Jr。 (1990:30) who wrote in Sutpen’s design: interpreting Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, “we can now hear it described as the greatest American novel of the century。”。 By depicting the rise and fall of Sutpen family, Faulkner mainly focused on several themes, such as racial discrimination, the tragic fate of women, biblical archetypes, narrative technique, Puritanism etc。 

    Moreover, in this book, Faulkner can be said to have achieved perfection in using the modern narrative techniques。 In Absalom, Absalom!, the greatness of character narrative, based on the relationship between orators and audiences, is a prominent feature of Faulkner’s novels。 So Faulkner told his friend, “I think it’s the best novel yet written by an American。” (Joseph R Urgo 1990(5):56)

    Faulkner’s view of women is a very important study aspect for scholars。 Readers hotly debate Faulkner’s women characters。 Some critics, such as Linda Wagner and Cleanth Brooks, believe that Faulkner is sympathetic to those women characters, whereas others, such as Leslie Fiedler and Irving Howe, believe that Faulkner is a misogynist。 

Some scholars, like Cleanth Brooks, hold a belief that women are close to nature。 And other critics are strongly against Faulkner’s dislike towards women, asserting that in Absalom, Absalom!, Female characters are more real and distinct than male ones。 Some think that Faulkner also had sympathy for women。 In contrast, some scholars are willing to support the idea that Faulkner had prejudice and dislike of women and that is why he create so many poor women in his books。 Lesilie Fiedler, a critic, who claims that Faulkner was a detractor of women。

These two extremely different comments on Faulkner’s views on women are all rational but one-sided。 The real attitude of Faulkner toward women is complex and scholars are still debating hotly。

1。3 Research Significance

This thesis will systematically explore women’s tragic fates in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! from the perspectives of the reasons of women’ tragic fate and women’s awaking consciousness。 By studying women’s miserable live, I want to demonstrate that women’s tragedies are mainly derived from patriarchy oppression and the influence of Puritanism towards women and by analyzing the two generations we will find that women begin to revalue their own lives。 It is distinct that the former generation and the later generation are different。 Although the later generation constrained by patriarchy oppression and Puritanism, their view towards men’s imperial status changes-- man is no longer the only one who can support and save the whole family in crisis。 The awakening consciousness is sparking in their hearts。文献综述

In a word, it attempts to point out that the women’s consciousness begins to awake not only in sexism but also in racism which is new to the study of women’s tragic fate in Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!。 Many scholars have found that women play a role of rebel against Sexism but they have not mentioned that women also begin to awake in racism。 So in this thesis I will systematically analyze that women actually begin to awake even though the concept of racial discrimination pervades in southern American。 Faulkner shows profound concern for southern women’s miserable lives and he encourages women to fight with the old concept and finally emancipate themselves from this cage where they have been locked up since they were born。