摘 要

作为20世纪最具代表性的哲学思想之一，存在主义在近年来的文学分析中得到了广泛应用。存在主义以关注人的价值为核心，重点探讨实现自我价值、掌握人生主动权的方法。存在主义将选择作为人实现真正存在价值的一种重要方式，强调选择对于人的重要性。其对人类价值以及人生的探索，为文学分析提供了一种崭新的思路。福克纳是美国文学史上最具影响力的作家之一，他的作品充分反映了美国南部的社会问题。《八月之光》作为福克纳最具代表性的作品之一，受到了国内外学者的普遍关注，其主要人物形象及主题也得到了不同层面的分析。本文旨在运用存在主义的哲学思想对《八月之光》中的女性形象进行解读。通过对《八月之光》的分析，读者不仅可以加深对其主题及现实意义的了解，还可以对人的生命价值获得更深刻的认知，从而选择一种更有意义的生活。

关键词：存在主义；《八月之光》；生命价值；女性形象；自我激励

Abstract

As one of the most representative philosophical thoughts in 20^th century, Existentialism has been employed widely in literary analyses nowadays. Centred on the value of human’s life, Existentialism explores the way to realize self-value and gain the motivation of life. Its exploration of the value of human’s life provides a totally new perspective for literary analyses. Besides, Faulkner is regarded as one of the most influential writers in the American literary history, and his works reveal the social problems of South America from different angles. As one of the most representative novels of Faulkner, Light in August has gained extensive attention from worldwide and nationwide scholars in recent years, and its characters and themes have gained a variety of analyses. This paper aims to analyze the women characters in Light in August from a relatively new perspective of Existentialism. Through the analyses of Light in August, the readers can not only have a clearer understanding of the themes and the practical meanings of this novel, but also have profounder ideas about the value of humans’ lives, thus have a strong mind to select a more significant life.

Key Words: Existentialism; Light in August; Value of Life; Women Characters; Self-motivation

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Existentialism 1

1.2 Faulkner and Light in August 2

2 The significance and Layout of this paper 4

2.1 Significance of this study 4

2.2 Layout of this paper 4

3 Main Analyses from the perspective of Existentialism 5

3.1 The theme of Light in August 5

3.2 Women characters from the Perspective of Existentialism 6

3.2.1 Lena Grove: A beam of light in life 6

3.2.2 Joanna Burden: The darkness hiding in the other side of life 8

3.3 Comparisons of other Women characters in Faulkner’s Work 9

3.3.1 Emily in A Rose For Emily 9

3.3.2 Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying 11

4 Conclusions 13

4.1 Summary 13

4.2 Further Study 13

References 15

Acknowledgments 17

Women Characters in Light in August from the Perspective of Existentialism

1 Introduction

1.1 Existentialism

As one of the most representative philosophical thoughts in the first half of 20^th century, Existentialism is one school of philosophy which centers on humans’ freedom and individuality. This ideological trend firstly comes up to give a proper explanation of humans’ alienation, then it turns to have more specific differentiation as time goes by. From Wikipedia, it can be found that Existential Analysis can be defined as a phenomenological and person-oriented psychotherapy, with the aim of leading the person to free experiences both mentally and emotionally, to facilitate authentic decisions and to bring about a truly responsible way of dealing with life and the world.

Jean-Paul Sartre, who is regarded as the pioneer of Existentialism, considers that Existentialism is also the humanitarianism(Sartre, 2012). Sartre thinks the existence of human being has no meaning, as well as human’s life itself. He indicates that everyone has the right to change himself and achieve his self-realization, so that he can live a wonderful life on the base of his existence. Everyone has an original choice, which gives direction and unitarity to human’s life. He also stresses that literature and philosophy are unity (Flynn, 2013), the artists and authors are supposed to pay attention to society. Moreover, Sartre voices that the relationship between the writers and the readers shouldn’t just be the relationship between goals and tools, the writers should take the responsibility to regard the readers as free subjects with the moral value(Flynn, 2013). In Sartre’s opinion, Existentialism has amply explained a kind of social conscience and belief. His view on the relationship between the writers and the readers is also practically. This viewpoint of Sartre is often used by neoteric writers to show their special concerns about survival problems of whole human-beings in many modern novels.

Another representative of this new philosophical theory is Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, the creator of western modern philosophy. He enriches the branches of Existentialism, and generalizes it to a new theory which is called the Will to Power. In Nietzsche’s opinion, the will to power means the power which is instinctive, irrational and spontaneous(Nietzsche, 2012). This power determines the essence and significance of humans’ life. The final performance of this will can be concluded into one kind of Self-control used by free spirit. In his opinion, the moral of free spirit is better than the religion ethics of the public. Human’s behaviors need something to support, and that is the will to power. Nietzsche points that the characteristics of the will to power are passion, desire, wildness and struggle (Nietzsche, 2012). And all of these features shape the real life of people. His viewpoint shows that people should love the fate positively, rather than give up negatively (Flynn, 2013). The strong will of mind can make up the mistakes in the past, thus all the people could realize the value of themselves.