Modern Man Searching For Soul

This thesis is 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 blackAvhite 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 focus on the understanding of the American Southern history and literature. Through analyzing the development of the southern culture, we can more deeply understand the relationship between Faulkner and Southern literature.In the second 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.