A Historical Contextualization of Reproductive Rights and Autonomy in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying
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Date
2022
Authors
Hall, Grace
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
In the 1930 quintessential American modernist novel, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner tells the story of a poor family, the Bundrens, living in the Deep South. The novel follows fifteen separate narrators, including all seven family members, as the children and husband of Addie Bundren transport her body to a town forty miles away so she can be laid to rest. Particularly interesting is the novel's portrayal of gender, and more specifically reproduction, which centers around the two characters of Addie and Dewey Dell Bundren and themes of sexual and reproductive autonomy. This thesis interrogates the central theme of women’s reproductive rights and autonomy in the novel by synthesizing the disciplines of history and English. It contextualizes close readings of the text in terms of the twentieth-century national birth control and abortion movements, attitudes towards women’s reproductive rights in the US, and the lived experiences of specifically poor rural white southern women. This contextualization clarifies how the book responds and reacts to the contexts in which it was written and which it portrays, thus illuminating how the novel illustrates the convergence of literature and history. The novel depicts the oppression of women, including the abuse of Addie Bundren’s dead body by her mostly male family, criticism towards Dewey Dell’s pregnancy, and her rape, among other issues. Given Faulkner’s identity, it is possible to view him as an ally to the male oppressors in the novel. Many prior critics support this viewpoint. My thesis, however, argues that Faulkner constructs the women in the story as moral centers and uses the novel to illuminate and raise awareness for women’s reproductive struggle in this time period. The historical lens helps to support this counterargument by providing the context that shows that the portrayals of women and their oppression in this time are historically sensitive and accurate, while also avoiding falling into stereotypical or misogynistic representations of women in the Deep South. By using this historical and textual evidence, this investigation proves that Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying presents significant and progressive claims about the reproductive experiences of women in the time period, thus challenging current ideas of Faulkner’s gender politics and the assumption that his identity restricted him from producing an early feminist work. On a broader scale, the thesis shows how literature can be read as a historical document, and how history can be used to contextualize and deepen understanding of the politics and themes that appear in literature.
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Keywords
Faulkner, Reproductive Rights, History, Literature, As I Lay Dying