The Intertextuality In The Snopes Trilogy

The Snopes Trilogy is an important work of William Faulkner's. Since its publication, critics have interpreted the trilogy from different perspectives. On the basis of previous criticism, this dissertation attempts to analyze the trilogy with intertextuality theory. Besides, the methods and theories of New Criticism, Cultural Studies, and New Historicism are also used when appropriate.Rejecting the New Critical notion of a self-contained text, intertextuality theory interprets a text in connection with other texts, including literary works, non-literary works and social or cultural texts. With such a broad critical horizon, intertextuality offers a methodological tool for literary analysis. Studying the trilogy's intertextuality with such important cultural texts as Southern frontier humor, Southern cavalier culture, Southern agrarianism, and New South Creed, which circulate in the trilogy, this dissertation reveals the trilogy's cultural significance and inner strength.Besides introduction and conclusion, this dissertation has three chapters. The introduction includes a literature review, a general introduction to intertextuality theory and the specific intertextuality concept used in this dissertation. It also presents the general structure and basic views of this study.The first chapter explores the intertextuality of the trilogy and the culture of Southern frontier humor. The trilogy absorbs some elements of frontier humorous works, especially its vivid trickster characters and exciting plot patterns, strengthening the humorous quality of this trilogy. Meanwhile, the trilogy rewrites the Poor-White tradition and the genre of the frontier humorous works, which exhibits its profound humanistic concerns.Chapter Two of this dissertation studies the intertextuality of the trilogy and Southern cavalier culture. The trilogy absorbs elements of Southern cavalier culture. Meanwhile, from the standpoint of humanism and modernist culture, it creates transformed Southern cavaliers and new Southern female characters, thus vigorously rewriting the traditions of Southern cavalier and Southern lady in Southern cavalier culture.Chapter Three studies the intertextuality of trilogy with Southern agrarianism and New South Creed, two important social discourses in American South. The trilogy absorbs some values from Southern agrarianism, such as its adherence to yeoman ideal and family ideology, and its resistance to industrialism and commercialism. Meanwhile, the trilogy, to a great extent, has taken a stand of resisting New South Creed. This stand is especially shown in its rewriting of the "new men" discourse. Meanwhile, the trilogy also has intertextual negotiations with Southern Agrarianism and New South Creed by absorbing their respective virtues.The conclusion deepens the previous parts of the dissertation. It illustrates that Faulkner, by constructing intertextuality in the trilogy, makes positive contributions to the cultural transformation and the reconstruction of value system in the South.