Transcend The Living Situations:A Study Of The Transgressive Behaviors In Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner is one of the greatest novelists in America. As a Southern writer and humanist, he reveals in his works the living situations of the whole human beings and his concerns about those who struggle on the social margins.Absalom, Absalom! is considered as Faulkner's masterpiece, and studies on this novel are emerging in an endless stream. In this novel, people from different classes and background are reduced to different living situations. Some of them suffer from identity crisis triggered by racism, some of them are restricted by some old social customs, still others are exploited by their superiors, etc.. In order to get rid of their miserable living situation, most of them attempt to challenge those authoritative powers or mainstream culture. Faulkner once emphasized that he was writing people and tried to settle problems of the human heart in conflict with itself. Previous critics put most of their concerns on the roots and living situations facing those characters in Absalom, Absalom!. But how do these people handle them when facing these living predicaments? This paper believes that most of them have tried some transgressive behaviors. These issues are of great significance but somehow neglected.In Absalom, Absalom!, the most noticeable transgressive behaviors are racial transgression, gender/sexual transgression and class transgression. In order to obtain his father's acknowledgment, the mulatto Bon intrudes into the white world and imitates the behavior of white people. Another mulatto Clytie pursues people's acceptance as an equal human being as white people. She thus devotes herself to her family and her community and finally subverts people's prejudices against her. Judith is the one who challenges the Southern ladyship. She is a loving and brave woman who dares to love and shoulder responsibilities. She finally becomes an androgynous person. Henry is a pursuer of true love. He holds a special love toward her sister. In order to own her, he stands up against the incest taboo. The protagonist of this novel, Sutpen is however a class transgressor. He starts from scratches and rises as a rich planter from a poor white. Wash is also a class transgressor. In order to save his dignity, he challenges his master and finally kills his master. A study of their transgressive behaviors offers possible approaches to transcend present living situations and helps to open up a new and dynamic perspective for its study and his other works.