First Advisor
Dr. Elisabeth Ceppi
Date of Award
Spring 6-14-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English and University Honors
Department
English
Language
English
Subjects
traumatheory, literature, southerngothic
Abstract
William Faulkner wrote Light in August in 1932, during the American prohibition and national Jim Crow laws. As a southern gothic/American modernism text, Light in August is a fictional story that takes place in the southern states of the U.S. and primarily relies on memory and ambiguity to reveal its dark themes of racism, sexual violence, and collective trauma. The novel features two separate narrators as main characters: Lena Burch and Joe Christmas. Joe Christmas, a man of mysterious heritage who lives a life of tragedy and violence, is the focus of my analysis of Light in August. Using textual evidence and historical contexts, I argue for an analysis of the character’s childhood that has not yet been written about in literary scholarship. With trauma theory in literature as the framework, I present the possibility that Christmas was molested as a boy by his white adoptive mother, Mrs. McEachern, and the potential implications that this has regarding the novel’s story, Faulkner’s time period, and present-day literary criticism. Scholars in trauma theory, philosophy, and literature, such as Cathy Caruth and Tommy J. Curry, provide the relevant contextual background for the argument.
Recommended Citation
Boyd, Kendall J., "Knowing Remembers Joe Christmas: An Exploration of Trauma in William Faulkner's Light in August" (2025). University Honors Theses. Paper 1754.