ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.04.010
Transgressions of Social Space in As I Lay Dying
Jiayi Wang*, Li Zhang
North China Electric Power University, Baoding 071000, Hebei, China.
*Corresponding author: Jiayi Wang
Published: April 30, 2025
Abstract
This paper examines how William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying reconfigures social space through acts of internal transgression, using Henri Lefebvre's framework as a critical tool. While Lefebvre famously argues that social space is a dynamic product of everyday human activity, Faulkner's narrative complicates this view by revealing how transgressive behaviors and fragmented identities destabilize dominant spatial representations. The analysis focuses on the Bundren family's journey through a marginal rural landscape—a setting where physical isolation and ideological exclusions are both produced and contested. By examining the interplay between spatial practice, representations of space, and spaces of representation, the essay demonstrates that the process of spatial production is not only continuously replicated but also inherently vulnerable to internal subversions. Faulkner's text thus becomes a site where the imposition of hegemonic spatial orders is actively challenged, suggesting that transgressive acts can expose and eventually transform repressive social environments. This perspective moves beyond Lefebvre's classical assertion by highlighting the critical potential embedded in narrative fragmentation and inner dissent, thereby offering a renewed understanding of how narratives can contest and reshape the spatial dimensions of social power.
Keyword
As I Lay Dying; Spatial Theory; Representative of Space; Power and Space
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Copyright
© 2025 by the author(s).
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How to cite this paper
Transgressions of Social Space in As I Lay Dying
How to cite this paper: Jiayi Wang, Li Zhang. (2025) Transgressions of Social Space in As I Lay Dying. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, 9(4), 723-726.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.04.010