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dc.contributor.advisorCarothers, James B
dc.contributor.advisorFowler, Doreen
dc.contributor.authorJoiner, Jennie Jo
dc.date.accessioned2011-07-04T22:57:26Z
dc.date.available2011-07-04T22:57:26Z
dc.date.issued2009-04-29
dc.date.submitted2009
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10296
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1808/7766
dc.description.abstractIn William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha masculinity is often at issue and is usually defined by men's activities in the outdoor world. But this study reveals that young white men often contemplate their masculinity in relation to marriage and domesticity. I argue that young white men, stripped of mastery over slaves and the outdoor world of the plantation in the changing and precarious social community of the reconstructed South, refocus their attention on the household--and marriage--as a place and a space that may reestablish their mastery and thus their manhood I focus on those whom I define as the young or developing white narrator and protagonist of each novel: Quentin Compson in Absalom, Absalom! (1936), Bayard Sartoris in The Unvanquished (1938), Isaac McCaslin in Go Down, Moses (1942), and Chick Mallison in Intruder in the Dust (1949). Their development can be interpreted through the literary genre of the Bildungsroman. By studying these novels as Bildungsromane, I demonstrate that traditional theories of this male-gendered genre are complicated by the narrators' inward struggle to identify with the domestic space. This causes them to turn inward, searching for understandings of their masculinity in their narratives of marriage. I define this as the narrators' search for an understanding of "domestic masculinity": masculinity established through a man's relationship to marriage and the home. This examination exposes the breakdown of the social binaries of marriage and slavery relied upon by male narrators to define themselves in relation to the Southern social order, ultimately showing how the two institutions mirror one another. This dissertation documents a progression, a re-imagining, an evolution in Faulkner's depiction of marriage. Quentin's narration in Absalom, Absalom! establishes, through his documentation of the Sutpen family saga, an understanding of how marriage creates community, how marriage as an institution is used to define one's identity whether it be white or black or slave and planter, and how marriage and slavery work together to create the household that sustains (and threatens) masculinity. Bayard's narration in The Unvanquished, in contrast, demonstrates the effects of the collapse of the household on his identity because he relies upon the ideologies of the household to buttress his identity in the war-ravished South. Ike's narration in Go Down, Moses documents the implications of the collapse of the household and the masculine identity created by it. Rather than relying upon the household to bolster identity as we see in Absalom, Absalom! and The Unvanquished, Ike McCaslin rejects the ideologies of the household, fearing its ability to enslave him, leaving the household to Lucas Beauchamp who uses it to establish his masculinity as white men did in the previous novels. Finally, in Intruder in the Dust, Chick McCaslin offers a younger generation's perception of what happens to marriage as a result of white men's abandonment of the household and black men's reliance upon it for masculinity. Juxtaposing his parents' marriage with a re-evaluation of Lucas Beauchamp's marriage, Chick ultimately rejects both understandings of marriage because he recognizes that neither marriage is a unification of individuals but is instead a contested site for dominance between the individuals. While Chick may have the clearest understanding of marriage, he too chooses to stand outside of the institution. Like his predecessors, Chick fears his ability to re-invent the institution and rid it of the onus of property, bondage, and mastery that have bastardized it into a feared institution.
dc.format.extentpages
dc.language.isoEN
dc.publisherUniversity of Kansas
dc.rightsThis item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
dc.subjectAmerican literature
dc.subjectBildungsroman
dc.subjectMarriage
dc.subjectMasculinity
dc.subjectFaulkner, William
dc.titleThe Big House: Marriage and Masculinity in Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha
dc.typeDissertation
dc.contributor.cmtememberElliott, Dorice W.
dc.thesis.degreeDisciplineEnglish
dc.thesis.degreeLevelPh.D.
kusw.oastatusna
kusw.oapolicyThis item does not meet KU Open Access policy criteria.
kusw.bibid6857421
dc.rights.accessrightsopenAccess


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