A Study Of Gothic Art In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

American writer William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying tells a story about the death of a woman and a coffin escort.The present thesis aims to analyze the applications and effects of Gothic art in As I Lay Dying through close reading.It also aims to unveil the Gothic American South after the Civil War,demonstrates the economic crisis and spiritual crisis of poor white peasants under the crash of industrialism and commercialism.The main body is divided into three parts.Chapter one discusses the formation of Faulkner's Gothic style,with the development and inheritance of Gothic writing in America,the important background of Faulkner's writing career which is the Southern Renaissance,along with the influence of Faulkner's life experience being discussed.Chapter two and chapter three are divided into four sections that analyze Gothic art from characterization,environment settings,plot,and theme.Chapter four summarizes the effects and functions of Gothic art inside As I Lay Dying and beyond.The conclusion part brings forth the major findings,limitations of the study and suggestions for further study.Instead of portraying a typical Gothic character,Faulkner distributes the features and behaviors of typical Gothic character into different characters.As for environment settings,Faulkner depicts typical Gothic natural environment settings and social environment settings.Faulkner also designs a series of Gothic plots to enrich the story and add proper dramatic features.Gothic art becomes a powerful assistant to expose stupidity,absurdity,and cruelty in human nature.The present thesis chooses to focus on two themes as “death” and “revenge” which show the features of this Gothic story.With the help of Gothic art,death and revenge become more thought-provoking.In As I Lay Dying,Faulkner combines Gothic art with American South thus to present a story of the poor white peasants in a unique genre as American Southern Gothic fiction.Gothic style brings As I Lay Dying more tragic and miserable features,making the indigent life of American Southern poor white peasants even more gloomy and horrible.More importantly,Faulkner expresses his humanitarian concerns in this book.He demonstrates his great compassion for Southerners who are struggling in misery,expresses his firm belief that man would finally endure and prevail.