Brown, Leiza Renee

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Genre

Thesis/Dissertation

Date

2008

Author

Brown, Leiza Renee

Advisor

Brivic, Sheldon

Committee member

Williams, Roland Leander
Orvell, Miles
Burns, Christy L.

Department

English

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/3679

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on one of the greatest, yet most problematic, novels in William Faulkner's canon. As I Lay Dying, Faulkner's self-proclaimed "tour de force," is a multilayered, multi-voiced text that leaves many critics wondering how to approach it, which has led to there being only a handful of full length critical texts devoted entirely to the book. The narrow approach used by most articles and critical texts leads to a necessarily cursory glance at the novel. The complexity of this narrative demands a multi-theoretical approach where no one theory is the primary voice or ultimate authority. The structure of the novel has dictated the order in which the theories are presented in the dissertation. The story follows members of a poor farm family as they journey to bury their matriarch. The family journeys from a private isolated space to a public outer space. The chosen theories are ordered in this same inner to outer fashion. The study begins with Freudian theories which consider how the inner workings of the mind affect the individual and moves steadily to Marxist critiques which focus on the effect of society on the individual. In this manner, the discussion grows from individual concerns to communal concerns. Spanning the theoretic gulf between Freud and Marx are Lacanian theories and Race issues using Appiah's theories, each a certain step from the inner to the outer. An important factor in the dissertation is the discourse between the theories as each theory sounds a note of meaning that builds toward a unified chord of meaning. I hope this exercise in literary criticism will add to a fuller understanding of Faulkner's novel.

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Theses and Dissertations

"The thick dark current runs": As I Lay Dying -- A Multi-Theoretical Approach