Alienation,Imprisonment And Resistance

As a crucial part of William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha saga,Light in August contains various overlapping spaces and intricate power networks.Existing studies are mainly concerned with the writing techniques of the writer,the identity crises or psychological worlds of the main characters in this novel.And researches on women mainly focus on the single dimension of women’s identities as “others” and the connection of them with the cultural stereotypes of Southern women,yet to some extent ignoring the topic of women’s various spatial practices in different geographic spaces and the spatial predicaments they are faced with,which highlights the innovation of this study.Therefore,this thesis attempts to take Feminist Geography as the theoretical basis to make an in-depth study of women’s spatial predicaments.As an important branch of human geography,feminist geography aims to reveal the discrimination against women in the “manmade environment” and the constraints on the use of space faced by them.Feminist geographers represented by Linda Mc Dowell disclose the gendered spatial divisions embedded in different spatial forms and their involvement in the construction of different subjectivities by examining various geographical spaces,such as body,home,district,city and country.It provides a solid theoretical basis for the exploration of women’s difficulties in the use of space and their plight in the gendered binary oppositions,like private/public,inside/outside and home/work.Aside from the parts of introduction and conclusion,the main body of this thesis is divided into three chapters.The first chapter mainly analyzes the predicaments of women’s personal spaces,including the deformation of the body and the alienation of the mental space.As the most prominent embodiment of their spatial predicaments,women’s deformed or morbid bodies are resulted from the discipline and the social construction of femininity under the dominance of patriarchal culture.The alienation of women’s mental spaces is manifested in aphasia and madness.The second chapter focuses on the domestic space that plays an important role in the social construction of femininity and other marginalized spaces such as the hidden orphanage and the back street restaurant.While women are depicted as the “angels” of the hearth,housework and childcare are classified as their “sacred” duties,which cause them being confined at home.Even within the domestic field,the space boundaries,such as doors and windows,are often used to mark the place for women’s appearance,so as to strictly divide and strangle their power.Although few women are permitted to enter the work filed,the tasks performed by them are essentially extensions of housework.It is difficult for them to get rid of the fates of being domesticated.The third chapter mainly discusses women’s resistance against racial discrimination in public spaces.Due to her identity as a “Yankee”,Joanna is sent to the margin of Jefferson and has to assume family’s responsibility to help black people alone.Wandering in the intersection of the private space and the public space,she achieves the manipulation and subversion of gendered spaces,but is ultimately destroyed in a big fire.Lena’s escaping from home enables her to go beyond the boundary of private space and enter the public space.With her highly performing words and deeds,she manages to pass through the patriarchal South and rewrite her fate of being abandoned.This thesis concludes that,by depicting women’s spatial predicaments and their resistance against the gendered spatial divisions,Faulkner shows deep sympathy for Southern women who are oppressed by the stifling patriarchy.In the meantime,he also indirectly reveals the ubiquitous anxiety of Southern people about miscegenation and shows great concern for the collective trauma of the whole Southern community after the Civil War as well as the persistent tensions between the North and the South.However,the destruction of Joanna and the return of Lena to the domestic space indicate that Faulkner shows limitations in empowering women to challenge gendered spatial divisions as a male writer.