THE (UN)BURIAL OF THE DEAD: THE JOURNEY OF THE CORPSE IN WILLIAM FAULKNER’S WORK

Abstract

From the reading of “Red Leaves,” “A rose for Emily” and As I lay dying, all published in 1930, this paper intends to investigate the question of the (un)burial of the dead in William Faulkner’s work. In a few words, despite the physical death of the body, these three texts insist on a journey of the corpse which, by attesting its unpleasant presence – either by means of the odor it exhales or its inevitable decomposition – suggests an impasse that cannot be simply suppressed or “buried.” Therefore, one can argue that there is, in Faulkner, an extended interaction with the dead body that indicates, if not the incompleteness of the life and death cycle, at least certain temporal mismatch.