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Neohelicon XXXV (2008) 1, 247255
DOI: 10.1007/s11059-008-3017-7
BILJANA OKLOPCIH
One of Faulkners Yoknapatawpha novels and short stories that pays special attention to the production of water symbolism is his The Sound and the Fury. Water in all its physical conditions and manifestations (branch, river, rain, tears, ice, wet drawers, wet clothes, bathing, bathroom, dropsy, mud, etc.) is present in Benjys, Quentins, Jasons and Dilseys discourses and, consequently, acquires different symbolic meanings. They can be read in the context of purity, restoration, female sexuality, resistance/subversion and control/manipulation.
Branch... River... Rain... Tears... Ice... Wet drawers... Wet clothes... Bathing... Bathroom... Dropsy... Mud... By making water in all its physical conditions and manifestations an integral presence in the novel, Faulkner elevates it to the symbol, without which The Sound and the Fury would not be what it is. Furthemore, it is significant that the novel itself is situated in Yoknapatawpha County whose etymology, according to its sole owner & proprietor (AA 384385)1 William Faulkner, rests on Chickasaw Indian word meaning water run[ning] slow through flat land (Blotner 251). Created upon the model of Faulkners native Lafayette County in Mississippi, Yoknapatawpha is located in northern Mississippi between the Tallahatchie River on the north and the Yoknapatawpha River on the south.2 Given these facts, it is then hardly surprising that water in the county which is actually situated between the rivers and whose name is etymologically connected with water, becomes one of the constituting elements of his The Sound and the Fury. As such, it acquires different symbolic meanings in Benjys, Quentins, Jasons and Dilseys discourses and consequently connotes purity, restoration, sexuality, resistance/subversion and control/manipulation.
1 Subsequent page references for Absalom, Absalom! will be given as AA in parentheses in the text.
2 Faulkner even made a hand-drawn map of his apocryphal county and published it in 1936 in his Absalom, Absalom!. One can also find an additional explanation containing information on Yoknapatawphas size (2400 sq mi) and population (6298 whites and 9313 blacks).
Biljana Oklopcih, Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Osijek, 9L. Jaeger Street, Osijek, 31000, Croatia; E-mail: [email protected]
03244652/$20.00 Akadmiai Kiad, Budapest 2008 Akadmiai Kiad, Budapest Springer, Dordrecht
SYMBOLISM OF WATER IN FAULKNERS
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
248 BILJANA OKLOPCIH
WATER AS SYMBOL OF...