'Woman' in motion: William Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy

The purpose of this study is to examine William Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy as a chronicle that documents the existence and decline of the Southern belle and the birth of the New Woman.; Chapter 1 provides a history of the "true" Southern belle, based on published letters, private diaries and memoirs, and her quest to become a New Woman. Not only was she active, but she was also expressive and even rebellious. Having been thrust into the marketplace by the Civil War, she quickly took her position and proved herself worthy of individuation.; Chapter 2 deals with Eula Varner, later Eula Snopes, as a victim of the patriarchy, actually subverting the patriarchy to "appear" a belle. To do this, Faulkner first exposes her as a paradox, being at once a victim of patriarchal oppression, all the while being personally indiscreet. When Eula takes on the belle image, she sacrifices herself. In doing so, she represents the South's ideal collective feminine; she "becomes" this passive image externally and, in doing so, destroys it.; Chapters 3, 4 and 5 explore Eula and hey daughter Linda as potential New Women. Since the plot develops only through the males' obsessions, one is forced to interpret the females through the males' voices. Thus this analysis lends itself to Jung's animus theory or the theory of transference. Through her encounters with the males and their projections onto her and her daughter Linda, Eula comes across as a fully-integrated individual in her personal life. The narrators allude to the Hebraic myth of Lilith to reveal her subversive, but indiscreet internal autonomy, her only means of survival.; Chapter 6 discusses Faulkner's poetic vision as being alchemical in nature. Conceived in 1925, the Trilogy, as well as several poems and short stories, written in that time frame, create a microcosm of his burnishing poetic vision. Considering "all illusions," he creates his own vessel in which he can place and shape his own emotional images, distilling his intrinsic Romantic impulses into pure illusion. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...