My earlier post about the search words and methods for research were effective because that is how I found these sources. The search words being “Faulkner and gender,” “Faulkner and women,” “Southern womanhood,” and “southern manhood.” I found them on Hunter’s Ebrary. These sources helped me with my thesis of how the characters of Caddy, Lena, Quentin II, and Addie subvert the standards of white southern womanhood. They helped by giving some cultural context, relevant information about Faulkner, and some very interesting analysis of some of these characters.
Bleikasten, André. The Ink of Melancholy : Faulkner’s Novels from the Sound and the Fury to Light in August, Indiana University Press, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/huntercollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4746225.
Bleikasten has a really interesting analysis that parallels Jason’s relationship to Quentin II with Quentin’s relationship with Caddy. Both are relationships that seek to control their sexualities, and this emphasizes in my essay how Quentin II is a lot freer than her mother, Caddy.
Clarke, Deborah. Robbing The Mother : Women in Faulkner, University Press of Mississippi, 1992. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/huntercollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=866930.
Clarke analyzes Lena Grove and how her rejection of southern womanhood is a threat to patriarchy but in a way that can go unpunished (unlike Joe Christmas) and is hence much more dangerous. This emphasizes my point of Lena’s mixing of gender standards, that being her not experiencing her pregnancy in a home and travelling like a “man” while also being gentle and soft like a “woman.”
Cotsell, Michael. William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, edited by Charles Moseley, Humanities-Ebooks, LLP, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/huntercollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3306098.
Cotsell explains how Faulkner has a Nietzschean view which explains his openness to subverting his own southern world including the rigid rules that women had to follow to be considered a proper woman.
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. Vintage International, 1985.
This is my primary source for all material regarding Addie Bundren. The quotes I use support my point about how she is the contrast to Caddy, Quentin II, and Lena in how she remained at home despite her frustration. She still explores her sexuality like the others, but it is in secret with no intention to eventually free herself from her home.
Faulkner, William. Light in August. Vintage International, 1985.
This is my primary source for all material regarding Lena Grove. The quotes I use support my point that Lena subverts southern womanhood by accepting her pregnancy out of wedlock and by travelling which is a masculine act by the standards of that time.
Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. Vintage International, 1984.
This is my primary source for all material regarding Caddy and Quentin II. The quotes I use support my point that while both of them explore their sexualities and reject southern womanhood in that sense, they differ in how they leave the Compson home.
Norman, Brian. Dead Women Talking : Figures of Injustice in American Literature, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/huntercollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3318641.
Norman explains how Addie’s form of obtaining her long-desired isolation was through dying. This connects to my point about how Addie is a direct contrast to Caddy (though are some similarities of debt in this case), Quentin II, and Lena because while these women left their home living, Addie left as dead.
Sensibar, Judith L.. Faulkner and Love: The Women Who Shaped His Art, Yale University Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/huntercollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3420510.
Sensibar supplements my paper by explaining what the women in Faulkner’s life were like as well as his own relationship to gender. Since my paper is about how Caddy, Addie, Lena, and Quentin II do not fit into the white southern conventions of womanhood, Faulkner’s background with women and gender is relevant.
Southern Masculinity : Perspectives on Manhood in the South since Reconstruction, edited by Craig Thompson Friend, University of Georgia Press, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/huntercollege-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3038788.
Southern Manhood explains how masculinity in the south evolved from chivalry to a more aggressive form post-Civil War which includes disinterest in the home since the home is considered feminine. This assists my argument because Caddy, Quetin II, and Lena all perform the masculine role of leaving their homes which leads to their freedom.
