An Interpretation Of The Major Mixed-blood Characters In Faulkner's Fiction

Due to the influence of Poststructurahst and Deconstruction thought, traditional literary criticism has been replaced by cultural studies and criticism which in comparison imply broader connotations since the 1970's. After the decline of New Criticism in the 1960s or so in America, Faulkner criticism has undergone a radical shift of paradigm and thus transformed into focusing on race, gender, class and identity, etc. In the past three decades, the cultural critique of Faulkner has produced a great number of results and insightful ideas which ceaselessly change our understanding of Faulkner and race. Faulkner's texts and narratives are opened up for reinterpretation from postmodern and postcolonial perspectives. Concerning Faulkner and race, it is agreed upon by most critics that the black people or "the Negro" in Faulkner's texts are imagined by the white people and thus are the "other" to the mainstream culture of the South. In Faulkner's texts, the disprivileged blacks have no voice, power, and they are exploited by the whites and usually become the victims of racial violence. Furthermore, race itself is not a stable and fixed signifier, instead, it is a social and cultural construct and a result of discoursive practices. Race and racial discourse are the means and strategy which the white people use to maintain their superiority and power over the black people in the social system.Unfortunately, the mixed-blood people as a group of important characters in Faulkner's fiction have long escaped critics' attention. Characters like Joe Christmas in Light in August, Lucas Beauchamp in Go Down, Moses are usually regarded as black people while their special experience, and their anxiety over racial identities, are neglected by critics. This thesis is supposed to analyze the major mixed-blood characters in Faulkner's fiction in the context of contemporary cultural criticism together with the late discussions and critical discourses of Faulkner and race.On the basis of close reading of Faulkner's three novels, Go Down, Moses, Absalom, Absalom! and Light in August, this thesis puts the major mixed-blood characters (Joe Christmas, Charles Bon, Charles Etienne Bon, Clytie, Lucas Beauchamp and Butch Beauchamp) into two categories, mainly according to the different eras in which they live. One category is the mixed-blood characters of the traditional southern society, which include Charles Bon, Clytie and Lucas Beauchamp; and the other is the mixed-blood characters of the modern society, which include Joe Christmas, Charles Etienne Bon and Butch Beauchamp. The categorization itself is of no great importance, and the author does not intend to bring forward a new binary opposition through this categorization, but attempts to utilize this differentiation to explore the differences concerning the mixed-blood characters' anxiety over racial identity and their attitudes toward the mainstream culture of the South.Two types of mixed-blood characters face a dilemma or even crisis of their racial identities, which is the essential trait of those characters, although the degree of their anxiety may vary. Like a specter haunting in Faulkner's texts, the dilemma and crisis of the mixed-blood characters are embodied in their anxiety and ambivalence over their racial origins in a black/white racial structure of the South. The mixed-blood characters could not identify themselves with either white or black people, and on the other hand, they could not be recognized as what they are by either the white culture or the black culture. In the first part of the thesis, the author will emphasize on the analysis of the mixed-blood characters' anxiety over their racial origins. In addition, the thesis will also discuss the childhood trauma of those mixed-blood characters and their inability to speak, along with deep social and cultural factors, which ultimately bring about their tragic fates.In the second part of the thesis, the author will explore the influence and cultural significance of mixed-blood characters. Firstly, the phenomenon of...