Cycnos | Volume 34.2 - " The wagon moves" : new essays on William Faulkner's As I lay dying | III. Time and Space
Dérives religieuses et hypocrites prêcheurs : performances et contre-performances dans la Lettre écarlate de Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tandis que j'agonise de William Faulkner et La Sagesse dans le sang de Flannery O'Connor
Abstract :
International audience
Using Nathaniel Hawthome's 1850 nove! The Scarlet Letter and two 20th century novels that echo its main ideas, William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying (1930) and Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952), this study focuses on the hypocrisy of religious figures. Faulkner and O'Connor both acknowledged their debt to Hawthorne and present variations on Reverend Dimmesdale, one of the central characters in his nove!. Following Austin's idea that any performance amounts to "doing things with words," the characters analyzed here use words to hide their deep dark secrets and present the world with smooth talks and an irreproachable behavior.
Published : 2018-05
Citation
Gerald Préher, « Dérives religieuses et hypocrites prêcheurs : performances et contre-performances dans la Lettre écarlate de Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tandis que j'agonise de William Faulkner et La Sagesse dans le sang de Flannery O'Connor », Cycnos, 2018-05. URL : https://hal.science/hal-03208004