Date of Award

1-1-2012

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of English

Content Description

1 online resource (iv, 54 pages) : PDF file

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Thomas Cohen

Keywords

plantation land, resistance, slip away, wilderness, Race in literature

Subject Categories

American Literature

Abstract

This thesis examines the divisions and boundaries made by the mechanisms of separation that authorize a false perception of land, animals, blacks and women as commodities in William Faulkner's "Go Down, Moses." Asserting that "Go Down, Moses" describes mixing as well as divisions, this study demonstrates that the dichotomous boundaries imposed upon nature and humans repeatedly fail to function. Wilderness and plantation land can never be separated as they exist in mixture. And the racial boundary between whites and blacks is destabilized and blurred by characters like Lucas Beauchamp and Tomey's Turl, who engage in resistance against the society whose foundation is based on the right to property which is allowed for whites as an exclusive attribute.

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