William Faulkner's Light in August: constructing race in the community

Abstract

Jednfm z ustrednfch temat dfla jizanskeho spisovatele Williama Faulknera (1897-1962) je rasa. Toto tema Faulkner rozvfjel a varioval v prubehu cele sve spisovatelske kariery, a proto je toto tema jako celek velmi obsazne. Zamerem teto diplomove prace bylo postihnout pouze vysek z tohoto kontinua - fungovanf rasy jako konstruktu v komunitach Jefferson a Mottstown Faulknerova imaginarnfho kraje Yoknapatawpha tak, jak jsou tyto komunity zobrazeny ve Faulknerove romanu Srpnove svet/o (Light in August). Zaroven chceme popsat vyznamy, ktere s rasou spojujf dve hlavnf postavy romanu - Joe Christmas a Joanna Burden. Jelikoz soucasna faulknerovska studia volajf po studiu spisovatelova dfla v kontextu, rozhodli jsme se roman Srpnove svetlo analyzovat na zaklade sociologickeho premyslenf 0 rase jako sociokulturnfm konstruktu a v kontextu vyvoje chapani pojmu rasy. Nase zkoumanf bude proto zalozeno na podrobne analyze textu s vyuzitfm sociologickych a sociokulturnich poznatku 0 rase. Pozornost prvni kapitoly se v souladu s vyse vymezenym tematem zameruje na definici rasy ze sociologickeho hlediska. Rasa je v tomto oboru pojfmana jako sociokulturnf konstrukt, tedy skutecnost vykonstruovana lidskou spolecnostf na podkladu specifickych fyziologickych znaku, jako je napr. barva pleti. Existence sociokulturnfch konstruktU...

When William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, he entered the times of the high tide of racial extremism that marked the post-Reconstruction era and the beginning of the 20th century. The small domestic world of the Falkner family William lived in as a small boy also afforded him contact with racial differences, most memorably through the servant of the Falkner family - Caroline Barr. This was a harmonious contact. The Falkner boys called Caroline "Mammy" Callie; "she cooked, she cleaned, and she cared for them but most of all the boys liked her stories - of animals in the woods, ghosts, and the 'Old Days' of slavery. The boys loved her dearly" (Williamson, William Faulkner and Southern History 153). However, William was soon confronted with the other side of the racially divided world. This must have happened most powerfully in the year 1908, when Oxford, Mississippi witnessed the lynching of Nelse Patton, "a black convict, but also [ ... ] a 'trusty'" (Williamson, William Faulkner and Southern History 157) who was allowed to run errands all over the town. He killed Mattie McMillan, a white woman, to whom he delivered a message, but refused to leave her house. She attempted to draw a pistol, but he stopped her and "drew a razor blade across [her] throat [ ... ], almost severing her head from her...