For my research paper, I’m writing about several of Faulkner’s female characters who appear in The Unvanquished, The Sound and the Fury and Light in August, and how they invert the traditional image of a woman. Faulkner’s women brush up against Romanticism and this image of the South being this pristine mystical place. When it comes to gender, sexuality, marriage, and miscegenation; Faulkner’s women reveal societal ironies and weird juxtapositions about Southern society. The development of characters like Drusilla Hawk, Caddy Compson, and Joanna Burden are indeed products of the ever-changing early  20th century and the cultural and social upheavals at display in this time period. Through an analysis of Faulkner’s life and the women he surrounds himself with, we can chart how Faulkner’s women demystify traditional notions about the South.

Sensibar, Judith L. Faulkner and Love: The Women Who Shaped His Art, a Biography. Yale University Press, 2009.

This book by Judith Sensibar offers a great understanding of the three women in his life that helped the writer blossom into the artist he would become. My focus on the book will be mostly aimed at his wife Estelle Oldham and how she influenced several characters in his fictional work. She was a writer in her own right and she worked alongside Faulkner throughout the development of his work. The additional biographical information relating to the early 20th century and the social milieu at the time will also be important when discussing how Faulkner demystifies this period.

Trefzer, Annette, and Ann J. Abadie. Faulkner’s Sexualities: Dana Andrews. University Press of Mississippi, 2010.

This book by Trefzer offers an interesting discussion on the status of sex and sexuality in Faulkner’s work. The relationship between the cultural and material condition of sex in the early 20th century is also an important question the book poses. In terms of what I’ll be using for my paper, my reading of the chapter All Mixed Up: Female Sexuality and Race will expand upon my knowledge of the interplay between race and sexuality in Faulkner’s work. My analysis of Caddy Compson will especially be reliant on this source. The discussion about virginity and menstruation throughout the chapter will reveal a lot of ironies about southern society when it comes to ideas about purity.

Klancar, Natasa Intihar. “Faulkner’s Southern Belle: Myth or Reality?” Acta Neophilologica, vol. 44, no. 1-2, 2011, pp. 47–57, https://doi.org/10.4312/an.44.1-2.47-57.

Klancar’s article address the traditional image of the Southern Belle in Faulkner’s work and their seemingly fall from innocence after failing Southern societal expectations. The crux of my argument is how Faulkner’s women brush up against these stereotypes, and the ultimate irony is that the women who seemingly fall from grace are more free than their contemporaries.

Clarke, Deborah. “Gender, Race, and Language in Light in August.” American Literature, vol. 61, no. 3, 1989, pp. 398–413, https://doi.org/10.2307/2926827.

This source will further expand my knowledge of the sexual and racial dynamic of Light in August. As Clarke argues the uneasy relationship between the sexes in the book mirror the uneasy relations when it comes to race. I’m using this source in my paper so I can argue about Joanna Burden’s relationship with Joe Christmas and how that relationship mirrored southern politics about miscegenation.

Roberts, Diane. “A Precarious Pedestal: The Confederate Woman in Faulkner’s Unvanquished.” Journal of American Studies, vol. 26, no. 2, 1992, pp. 233–46, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021875800030772.

This article addresses the image of the “Confederate Woman” in William Faulkner’s Unvanquished. I will be using this source throughout my analysis of Drusilla Hawk and how she inverts aspects of gender and femininity in her society. She embodies many truly “masculine traits” compared to Bayard Sartoris who is expected by the other men to seek revenge after granny’s death. The irony that Drusilla defends the staunch Southern way of life when’s she biggest nonconforming character in the book, is an irony I will endeavor to highlight in my paper.