Complex,Archetype,and Individuation

This thesis aims to analyze the psychic conflicts of characters in Faulkner's fictions from the perspective of Jung's analytical-psychology,with Absalom,Absalom! as a case study.Penetrating the realistic content—the decline and the degeneration of American South,the paper intends to explore the hidden profound connotation,that is Faulkner's metaphorical anxiety and intense concern for humanity and human mentality,based on and integrating Jung's theory.We will try to find out the psychological motivations for characters' tragedy by interpreting the conflicts between characters' conscious and unconscious,main personality and sub-personality,parts of the psyche,the psyche and the external world,and analyzing characters' individuation and fulfillment of the Self.On one hand,a comprehensive analysis of the fates of Sutpen,Rosa and Quentin will be made horizontally,to be specific,Sutpen's failure to survive the racial discrimination,Rosa's frustrated attempts at breaking out of the encirclement of the patriarchy and Quentin's inadaptation to the social changes.All of them are eliminated by the society,due to their failed individuation.On the other hand,an interpretation of each character's individuation and the roles that conscious,individual unconscious and collective unconscious play during the process will be conducted vertically.It is found that their personalities are full of contradictions.More specifically,the analysis covers Sutpen's racial complex,Rosa's inferiority complex,and Quentin's nostalgia complex as well as archetypes like hero/demon and rebirth/death embodied in Sutpen,Animus/Self and God/trickster in Rosa,and Persona/Shadow and child/illuminati in Quentin.Through the in-depth exploration of the characters,this thesis attempts to reveal Faulkner's core concern for human psychic crisis,and discuss his aesthetic and philosophical thinking about individual living states and human destiny.As a consequence,it is found that the characters' competing psyches do not reach a balance or unity,which results in the failure of individuation,the distortion of mentality,the dissociation of personality,the inadaptation to the society and eventually their collective miserable destiny.Faulkner tries to provide a solution to human's mental problem through his literary works,that is to achieve and keep the balance of the psyche.This thesis will be an effective practice of reinterpreting the classic of Faulkner from the point of view of the analytical psychology.