Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Analyzing the Role of Caddy's Absence in The Sound and the Fury Based on Textual Close Reading and Corpus Analysis

Mengxuan XieSouthern China Normal University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

The Sound and the Fury is a masterpiece of American writer Faulkner's novels, and it is also an outstanding achievement of the writer's exploration of stream-of-consciousness narrative. The novel set in the post-Civil War American South, depicts the decline of a big family and old society orders. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the symbolic meaning of Caddy's "absence" in the narrative through close reading of the text, psychoanalysis and corpus searching methods, so as to look into the deeper meaning of the text. By analyzing Caddy's image from various angles, the paper finally concludes that Caddy's absence is not only a symbol of the era of decline, rupture and uncertainty, but also a means to strengthen the interactivity and extensibility of the text, as well as implying the author's understanding and awareness of women. By excluding Caddy from the text, the novel itself becomes an interpretation of Caddy.

Keywords: characterization construction; narrative method structure; stream of consciousness; multi-perspective narration; corpus analysis
Published: December 7, 2023
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/22/20231648
Volume: CHR Vol.22
pp. 139-144
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