A Heterotopian Interpretation Of As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying,a central book in William Faulkner's masterpieces,has since its publication attracted a worldwide attention from numerous readers and commentators,hence there is the need for a thoroughgoing research on the novel.Thus far,the book has received a major critical devotion largely on its polyphony in the context of Modernism and psychological depth beneath a jumble of stream-of-consciousness.Other studies approaching the novel in light of feministic,existential and archetypal theories also prosper.To researchers,it should not be totally infeasible to discover an uncharted territory as the author has created in the novel a wealth of possibilies.This study is to offer a new insight into the novel from the perspective of Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia to reveal that As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's consummate literary experiment in heterotopia construction.By analyzing the novel's multi-perspective and time-blurring narrative features as well as the Bundrens' private obsessions,this thesis suggests that multi-perspectives is essentially a heterotopian way of juxtaposing spaces and the novel's dislocated time is particularly related to a temporal heterotopia which Foucault has termed heterochrony.Furthermore,the Bundrens are trapped in a heterotopia of their private logic and live a life alienated from each other.Therefore,the heterotopias are constructed in both the novel's structure and its characterization of the Bundrens.This research is one of few attempts to offer a heterotopian interpretation of As I Lay Dying.