关键词: 威廉·福克纳; 《我弥留之际》; 空间三一论; 空间对峙; 身份建构

Abstract:

As I Lay Dying is a representative work published by the famous American writer William Faulkner in the year 1930. The book centers on the description of a family’s journey to the town of Jefferson for the burial of the matriarch, Addie. Since its publication, the novel has attracted the attention of researchers who have been interested in the novel’s characters, the religious tropes and the artistic means. Comparatively speaking, the social elements of the novel are seldom discussed. The present authors believe that this novel is not only a representation of the life of poor white farmers, but also suggests the battle between the town and the countryside, as well as the identity construction in the south of the United States. The pressures and restraints exerted on the Bundrens when they struggle to be a part of the urban community indicate the structural domination of the town over the countryside. The shift of perspectives disrupts the narrative coherence, and presents the Bundren family as a fragmented, conflicted, and vulnerable group, thus suggesting the plight of rural whites during the process of urbanization. This article explores the hierarchical distinction between the town and the countryside, the journey of the Bundrens, and the resistant “representational space” of Addie and others from the perspective of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial triad theory. Faulkner shows his strong humanistic concern by describing these white farmers’ struggles to survive in a narrow space.

Keywords: William Faulkner; As I Lay Dying; spatial triad theory; space confrontation; identity construction