Narrative Techniques and Sutpen's Design in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!

• Main Authors: Ming-Hung Chu, 朱明鴻
• Other Authors: Ernest Rufus Cook
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6e2edd

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系碩博士班 === 90 === An attempt is made to develop the idea of the nature of narrative. The central idea was inspired by William Faulkner’s experimental writing techniques which require the readers’ intelligence and knowledge base. Various narrators in Absalom, Absalom! present a variety of interpretations of Thomas Sutpen’s design. The ostensible construction of Sutpen’s design is concisely presented as a plantation with pure white lineage from father to son. One confusing scene to all the narrators, including Rosa Coldfield, Mr. Compson, Quentin Compson, and Shreve, is the killing of Charles Bon, Sutpen’s first son, by Henry Sutpen, his second son. Based on this murder scene, several possibilities for this killing are bigamy, incest, and miscegenation, in which the latest is the most reasonable. What lies behind the plot of avoiding miscegenation is Sutpen’s dignified and honorable ideal of creating a plantation in which people are equally treated. Also, the four main narrators are categorized into two types: one is the eyewitness narrator, such as Rosa Coldfield, and the other type is the non-eyewitness narrator, such as Mr. Compson, Quentin, and Shreve. Paradoxically, the most distant non-eyewitness is made the most imaginative and trustworthy narrator by William Faulkner.