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William Faulkner grew up and began his writing career during a time of great cultural upheaval, especially in the realm of sexuality, where every normative notion of identity and relationship was being re-examined. Not only does Faulkner explore multiple versions of sexuality throughout his work, but he also studies the sexual dimension of various social, economic, and aesthetic concerns.In Faulkner's Sexualities, contributors query Faulkner's life and fiction in terms of sexual identity, sexual politics, and the ways in which such concerns affect his aesthetics. Given the frequent play with sexual norms and practices, how does Faulkner's fiction constitute the sexual subject in relation to the dynamics of the body, language, and culture? In what ways does Faulkner participate in discourses of masculinity and femininity, desire and reproduction, heterosexuality and homosexuality? In what ways are these discourses bound up with representations of race and ethnicity, modernity and ideology, region and nation? In what ways do his texts touch on questions concerning the racialization of categories of gender within colonial and dominant metropolitan discourses and power relations? Is there a Southern sexuality? This volume wrestles with these questions and relates them to theories of race, gender, and sexuality.
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Faulkner’s Sexualities faulkner and yoknapatawpha 2007
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Faulkner’s Sexualities faulkner and yoknapatawpha, 2007
edited by Annette Trefzer and Ann J. Abadie
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Copyright © 2010 by University Press of Mississippi All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing 2010 ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference (34th : 2007 : University of Mississippi) Faulkner's sexualities : Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 2007 / edited by Annette Trefzer and Ann J. Abadie. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60473-560-4 (alk. paper) 1. Faulkner, William, 1897–1962—Criticism and interpretation—Congresses. 2. Faulkner, William, 1897–1962—Sexual behavior—Congresses. 3. Faulkner, William, 1897–1962—Aesthetics—Congresses. 4. Sex in literature—Congresses. 5. Sex (Psychology) in literature—Congresses. 6. Gender identity in literature—Congresses. I. Trefzer, Annette, 1960– II. Abadie, Ann J. III. Title. PS3511.A86Z7832113 2007 813'.52—dc22 2009034639 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
In Memoriam,
Martha Glenn Stephens Cofield November 23, 1935–September 29, 2008
Charles E. “Chuck” Noyes July 19, 1917–August 30, 2008
Jill Faulkner Summers June 14, 1933–April 21, 2008
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Contents
Introduction annette trefzer
ix
Note on the Conference
xix
Unhistoricizing Faulkner catherine gunther kodat The Artful and Crafty Ones of the French Quarter: Male Homosexuality and Faulkner’s Early Prose Writings gary richards
3
21
“And You Too, Sister, Sister?”: Lesbian Sexuality, Absalom, Absalom!, and the Reconstruction of the Southern Family 38 jaime harker
Faulkner, Marcuse, and Erotic Power michael zeitlin Faulkner’s Sexualized City: Modernism, Commerce, and the (Textual) Body peter lurie “Must Have Been Love”: Sexualities’ Attachments in Faulkner deborah e. m c dowell All Mixed Up: Female Sexuality and Race in The Sound and the Fury kristin fujie
54
73
94
115
Faulkner’s Black Sexuality john n. duvall
131
Popeye’s Impersonal Temple michael wainwright
148
vii