| William Faulkner (1897—1962) is one of the most prominent writers of the 20th century in the south of the United States. His works, in the background of his"postage stamp of native soil", reflect the culture and history of the southern part of the United States faithfully and profoundly. The Sound and the Fury is his fourth novel and also the most well-known one which has been praised and loved since its publication in 1929.So far, a lot of researches on The Sound and the Fury have related to all-round approaches including narratology, hermeneutics, psychological analysis, post-colonialism, archetypal criticism and feminism, yet involves a rather simple kind of deficiency—the lack of deep and concrete investigation of the proper time view expressed by William Faulkner from the perspective of life philosophy. Besides, most of the previous researches are limited to the time view of only one or two characters, lacking the overall and comprehensive analysis. Therefore, this thesis aims to analyze Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury from the perspective of life philosophy, probing into time view's influence on the course of life. Furthermore, the exploration of Faulkner's novel is not merely in the aspect of characters'analysis but also in the aspect of stylistic research, from which readers can see how Bergson's thoughts affect Faulkner's creation.This thesis includes five chapters:Chapter One gives a brief introduction to Faulkner's life and his major achievements, especially to his masterpiece The Sound and the Fury, and then provides a literature review both at home and abroad, and finally states the feasibility and significance of this study.Chapter Two presents the theoretical perspective of this thesis. First, it has a general review of the development of philosophy of life; Second, it focuses on the great representative of philosophy of life—Bergson's philosophy of life. More specifically, it will mainly introduce Bergson's core idea—duration.Chapter Three analyzes the four most representative characters with the employment of Bergson's philosophy of life—Benjy, Quentin, Jason and Dilsey. The author elaborates on their different attitudes towards time and life together with their relevant life experiences. Among them, Benjy confuses the past with the present; Quentin immerses himself in the past and ignores the present; Jason disregards the past and entraps into the present. Thereupon all of their improper time views make them in an unbalanced duration, which quickens their steps towards their tragic endings. On the contrary, Dilsey, as a positive character in the novel, believes that the present is derived from the past and pregnant with the future. She bravely accepts the reality without obsession with the past. Thus, she deals with the relationship among the past, the present and the future properly, keeps a well-balanced duration and hence has an optimistic and harmonious life.Chapter Four explores Bergson's ideology reflected from the stylistic features in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. It mainly researches from two aspects—disordered time structure and artistic features of language, both of which show great influence exerted on Faulkner's creation by Bergson's life philosophy.Chapter Five comes to the conclusion of this thesis. This part states that philosophical thinking reflected in both content and form of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is in accordance with Bergson's life philosophy, which proves Bergson's influence on Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Besides, after an overall study of this novel, readers can get Faulkner's time view that three dimensions of life—past, present and future—are inseparable and interpenetrate each other. Therefore, it's better for us to face the past bravely, adapt ourselves to the new changes, live in the present and look ahead to the future so that we can be in a harmonious duration and have a better life. Otherwise, anyone who refuses to change, advance or neglects any of the three dimensions is doomed to destruction. In the end, the potential limitations pertaining to this research are elucidated and recommendations for future investigations are submitted. |
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