Cycnos | Volume 34.2 - " The wagon moves" : new essays on William Faulkner's As I lay dying | I. Context

Résumé :

International audience

This paper explores the kaleidoscopic technique that is at work in As I Lay Dying, where a family, made of heterogeneous members, is decomposed then recomposed as they suffer the pressure of physical and moral strain. The family members somehow evoke the glass pieces of the colorful rose. Examining the kaleidoscopic dimension of As I Lay Dying makes it possible to grasp what is going on between the characters. Two characters, whose polarity structures the whole narrative, will more particularly be the centers of attention: on the one hand Jewel, who is fully riveted to life as he is welded to his horse; on the other hand Dari, who is uprooted and keeps floating along the uncertainties of his own life. His words are strongly reminiscent of Hamlet's monologues. More generally, this article looks into the binary opposition between Jife and existence in Faulkner's writing.

Mots-clés : life vs. existence, Hamlet, Dari Bundren, Kaleidoscope, narration, division, Jewel Bundren

Date de publication : 2018-05