Interpreting The Twisted Humanity

William Faulkner is one of the most famous fictionists in the twentieth century, who creates a lot of fascinating short stories which are on a par with his masterpieces of novels. With profound narrative and rhetorical techniques, these short stories reveal Faulkner’s everlasting concern with the twisted humanity of human beings who are constantly in the struggle with inner and outer worlds.Based on the theories of narratology and rhetorics, this thesis explores a dozen of Faulkner’s best short stories by close reading. From the perspective of narrative focalization, the thesis analyses internal focalization, external focalization and variable focalization adopted in Faulkner’s short stories, which respectively serve different literary effects in the rendering of characters and ideas. From the perspective of narrative time, the thesis analyses Faulkner’s use of anachronies, especially his use of complete flashback which perfectly reflects his time view. From the perspective of narrative structure, the thesis makes a tentative exploration of the inherent structures of Faulkner’s short stories including psycho-plot structure and thematic structure. In thematic structure, patriarchy mode and women-tragedy mode are both put forward. And from the perspective of rhetorics, the thesis analyses Faulkner’s manipulation of symbolism and irony in his stories, including using natural images to symbolize human society, taking symbolic images to interpret religion, culture and tradition, and satirizing social justice and human existence with ubiquitous ironies.Faulkner’s outstanding manipulation of narrative and rhetoric techniques in his short stories, perfectly serves his everlasting concern with humanity, which creates a perfect unification of form and content.