William Faulkner'ın romanlarında erkeklik temsili

The aim of this thesis is to scrutinize the representation of the postbellum masculinity in the South through a dialectical lens in three novels by William Faulkner: Sanctuary, The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom!. This study draws upon the theory of masculinity conceptualized by critics like Raewyn Connell, Todd W. Reeser and Michael Kimmel whose ideas have been instrumental in analyzing masculinity as a social construct and interrogates certain exclusively Southern notions such as "The Cavalier" and "The Lost Cause" within the context of performative masculinity. As a Southern author, Faulkner underlines the performative nature of manhood by rendering his psychologically castrated male characters as delusional and oblivious. The study of Sanctuary focuses on the Quixotic quest for lost manhood after the Civil War. The process of departriarchalization is foregrounded in the analysis of The Sound and the Fury. The discussion of the last novel, Absalom, Absalom! is centered around how the "cavalier" is mythologized through the act of storytelling. By focusing on these three novels, the study demonstrates that Faulkner interrogates the validity and the sustainability of the so-called Cavalier figure the Southern masculine identity was constructed upon by placing them in subversive counternarratives that dismantle the Southern men's privileged statuss.