 |
customer@davidpublishing.com |
 |
3275638434 |
 |
 |
| Paper Publishing WeChat |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
YU Rui
Full-Text PDF
XML 27 Views
DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.05.004
Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily has long been interpreted as an allegory of the conflict between Southern tradition and modern civilization. This paper attempts to examine Emily Grierson from the dual perspectives of “spatial boundaries” and “cultural reproduction”, exploring how she is constructed by the old Southern order as a “monument” and how she moves toward both cultural and physical death under the penetration of Northern modernity. The study finds that Emily’s house is not merely a physically enclosed entity but constitutes a superimposition of three boundaries: physical, social, and bodily. Her poisoning of the Northern suitor, Homer Barron, is not simply a matter of personal love or hatred, but an extreme response triggered by the complete failure of the “cultural reproduction” mechanism when Southern aristocratic culture encounters Northern capitalist values. Through this interpretation, this paper seeks to reveal Faulkner’s ambivalent attitude toward the fate of the South—mourning the passing of tradition while keenly perceiving its inherent decay and violence.
spatial boundaries, cultural reproduction, Southern belle myth, William Faulkner
Cao, S. H. (2014). A feminist interpretation of “A rose for Emily”. Journal of Zhengzhou University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 47(5), 121-124.
Faulkner, W. (1930). A rose for Emily. Centerport: The Forum.
Huang, W. T. (2015). Distorted and alienated female figures from the perspective of female gothic. The Guide of Science & Education, 7(17), 130-131.
Li, F. D. (2010). On the causes of Emily’s tragedy: A psychoanalytic perspective. Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 30(12), 7-11.
Li, M. (2021). An interpretation of the imbalance of Emily’s ego and superego. English Square, 11(6), 18-20.
Lin, K. Y. (2025). Transitivity analysis of character agency in “A rose for Emily”. International Journal of Education and Humanities, 21(3), 325-334.
Liu, H. B. (1999). The lost world of the south. Chongqing: Southwest China Normal University Press.
Lu, R. (2004). An interpretation of the narrative structure of “A rose for Emily”. Journal of Harbin University, 25(5), 104-107.
Muhlisin, M., & Aprianto, D. (2025). An analysis of the southern gothic genre in William Faulkner’s “A rose for Emily”. J-Lalite: Journal of English Studies, 6(1), 40-52.
Shi, Z. J. (2008). Emily’s triple tragedy. Journal of Shaoyang University (Social Science Edition), 30(1), 139-141.
Song, T. Y. (2024). “A rose for Emily” in the perspective of psychoanalysis. English Square, 14(12), 50-54.
Wang, M. Q. (2002). Narrative features of “A rose for Emily”. Journal of Foreign Languages, 25(2), 66-70.
Wang, Z. X. (2020). Spatial boundaries and their crossing in “A rose for Emily”. Literature Education (Lower), 16(2), 126-127.
Wang, Z. J. (2023). The gothic narrative art of “A rose for Emily”. Masterpieces Review, 44(15), 125-128.
Xiao, M. H. (1996). Faulkner and the southern literary tradition. Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Social Sciences Edition), 23(1), 75-81.
Yuan, M. M. (2018). The decline of the southern aristocratic class: An interpretation of “A rose for Emily” from a feminist perspective. The Guide of Science & Education, 10(10), 150-152.