A Study On The Spatial Form Of William Faulkner’s Novels

William Faulkner is one of the most important novelists in the 20th century.He has become an important research object of domestic and oversea scholars,as he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949.Faulkner builds his own literary myth--"Yoknapatawpha Genealogy" in his novels,his beloved south of love and hatred are reflected in a series of literary works,so researchers have done detailed studies on the relationship between Faulkner and the south.In addition,the analysis of racial issues and female images in Faulkner’s novels are also the focus of the study.The analysis of the stream of consciousness in a single work,such as The Sound and the Fury,has attracted the attention of many scholars.However,the study of spatial form in Faulkner’s novels is still lagging behind.Since 20th century,there has been a spatial turn in the field of narratology,and the spatial form of novel has become one aspect that can not be ignored.Time no longer governs the novel,space also occupy a certain position in the novel.Faulkner slows the narrative process of the novel and presents many images,phrases,events in a relatively stationary time.The significance of the novel is not only obtained from the linear narrative,but given by the reaction relation among all the units of meaning.Faulkner uses multi-perspective narrative,multiple stories,time montage,free association skills,myth prototype structure and prototype image,so that these novels present a spatial form.This thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter discusses Faulkner adopts three different multi-perspective narrative patterns in The Sound and the Fury,As I Lay Dying and Absalom,Absalom!.In the juxtaposition of narrative perspectives,these novels present a spatial form of heteroglossia.The second chapter discusses that Faulkner places multiple stories in the light in August and The Wild Palms.These novels get the spatial effect in the contrast of different Story themes,characters and images.The third chapter discusses Faulkner’s stream of consciousness techniques in the novel The sound and the fury.The past and the present are synchronic in the consciousness of the characters,and the novel thus obtains the spatial form.The fourth chapter discusses Faulkner’s myth archetypal structure and archetypal image in many novels.These novels obtain the spatial form in the juxtaposition of ancient myth archetypal structure,archetypal image and reader’s "reaction reference".