Author Archives: Elizaveta Baholdina

May 06 2021
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Annotated Bibliography

 My primary source for this research project is William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. When looking for secondary sources on Jstor and Gale Academic Onefile, I used key terms like ‘motherhood’, ‘femininity and sexuality’, as well as ‘womanhood in Faulkner’s works’. An issue I am having is accessing the full chapter of one of my key secondary sources, Bianca Batti’s section in Greenslade’s book Absent Mothers. I found a lot of useful sources in the footnotes of the previously mentioned text, that were published within the last twenty years which will give my paper a more modern perspective regarding ‘regulating the reproductive body’.

Batti, Bianca. “‘Speaking from Beyond the Grave: Abjection and the Maternal Corpses of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Getting Mother’s Body.” Absent Mothers, by Frances Greenslade, Demeter Press, 2017. 

This text presents its readers with various negative portrayals of motherhood in literature, one of them being Addie Bundren. Greenslade dubs these women as absent and uncaring mothers, while Batti highlights her sexual and maternal roles as two that juxtapose each other.

BERGMAN, JILL. “‘this was the answer to it’: Sexuality and Maternity in As I Lay Dying.” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 3, 1996, p. 393. Gale Academic OneFile

Bergman highlights the narrative of Southern women being viewed only as baby making machines, as she sets the concept of Southern motherhood against the lack of bodily agency possessed by women, the shame they encounter regarding sex for pleasure, as well as the lack of contraception. 

Kincaid, Nanci. “As me and Addie lay dying.” The Southern Review, vol. 30, no. 3, 1994, p. 582+. Gale Academic OneFile.

This work focuses on the religious guilt that surrounds women in Southern culture. Women must be physically beautiful and seductive to get a husband, but they are not allowed to use their femininity for actual pleasure, lest they succumb to ‘sin’ and ‘evil’. Kincaid juxtaposes female innocence and sexuality through Addie in As I Lay Dying. 

Nielsen, Paul S. “What Does Addie Bundren Mean, and How Does She Mean It?” The Southern Literary Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, 1992, pp. 33–39. JSTOR, 

This article tackles the meaning behind the singularity of Addie’s narrative, why her point of view was offered to readers so far into the book, and only after we learn about the shortcoming of the family as a whole, as well as what she has to say about herself as a sexual woman and mother. 

Wald, Priscilla. (2000). Molly Ladd-Taylor and Lauri Umansky, eds. — “Bad” Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America. Left History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Historical Inquiry and Debate. 

This text explores the reasoning behind why so much of the blame within a family is placed on mothers. External and internal pressures including societal and familial obligations weigh heavy on mother’s shoulders, and when they fail to meet the unrealistlcly set expectations, they are labeled as ‘bad mothers’.

Apr 22 2021
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Bibliography

Batti, Bianca. “‘Speaking from Beyond the Grave: Abjection and the Maternal Corpses of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Getting Mother’s Body.” Absent Mothers, by Frances Greenslade, Demeter Press, 2017. 

BERGMAN, JILL. “‘this was the answer to it’: Sexuality and Maternity in As I Lay Dying.” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 3, 1996, p. 393. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A57535131/AONE?u=cuny_hunter&sid=AONE&xid=145209b6. 

Blaine, Diana York. “The abjection of Addie and other myths of the maternal in ‘As I Lay Dying.’ (Special Issue: William Faulkner).” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 3, 1994, p. 419+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A15939705/AONE?u=cuny_hunter&sid=AONE&xid=ab305cbd

HEWSON, MARC. “‘My children were of me alone’: Maternal Influence in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 53, no. 4, 2000, p. 551. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A76800196/AONE?u=cuny_hunter&sid=AONE&xid=2d584951

Kincaid, Nanci. “As me and Addie lay dying.” The Southern Review, vol. 30, no. 3, 1994, p. 582+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A15686750/AONE?u=cuny_hunter&sid=AONE&xid=964595ff.

Nielsen, Paul S. “What Does Addie Bundren Mean, and How Does She Mean It?” The Southern Literary Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, 1992, pp. 33–39. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20078054. 

Pierce, Constance. “Being, Knowing, and Saying in the ‘Addie’ Section of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 26, no. 3, 1980, pp. 294–305. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/441390. 

Roberts, Diane. Faulkner and Southern Womanhood. University of Georgia Press, 1995. 

Apr 12 2021
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Research Question

In Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, the reader gets to meet Addie on page 169, many days after her passing. What is the significance of her brief narrative so far into the book? Why is Addie ‘revived’ post mortem at a time when her family seems to be breaking apart? What did we learn about the nature of her character from this short passage? Did her point of view reveal any new information about the Bundren’s family dynamic?

Mar 22 2021
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Addie Is Not the Only One Dying

The title of the novel gives its reader certain expectations of the summary or theme, so when we see the title As “I” Lay Dying, we assume that the narration will be written from the point of view of a person who is dying, but that is not the case. So far, we haven’t heard from Addie’s perspective at all, except for a few words tossed into conversations with her sons and doctor. I flipped forward a few chapters and saw that a segment does get narrated by her, (perhaps a flashback, since this was after her passing). Instead, we get the narrative of people who have to watch her die, and live after her passing. So that got me thinking, who or what else is dying in this novel?

Addie’s passing symbolizes the metaphorical death of everything and everyone around her. She was the glue holding the family together, keeping relationships functional, and once she is out of the picture the household begins to fall apart. There is sibling rivalry, the source of which most often is competition for their mother’s affection. Bickering amongst the children and father, who is lazy and selfish. If we listen to the critiques of Cora Tull, conservative familial values and religion are dying as well, as she reprimands the Bundren’s for burying Addie so far away from where the rest of them will be buried, severing the ties between a ‘proper’ Christian mother and children and husband and wife. Anse speaks of the trip the family will make to Jefferson as a necessity to fulfil his wife’s dying wish, but is really going out of ulterior motives to get his teeth fixed, which marks the death of respect and familial obligation. This speaks to his character, if his main concern after the death of his wife is such triviality as physical appearance. The estate and the neighborhood in which the Bundrens live is dying and falling apart as well. They are depicted as being poor, frugal and skimping on everything. The boys pick up any job they can to make a little extra money. After the rain washes away the bridge, they lack the funds to make the necessary repairs. 

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Mar 04 2021
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Clarissa’s Love Chronicles

Clarissa and Peter, despite their differences and self assured proclamations that they’re both better off being in the romantic relationships they are now, then if they have gotten together, have cared deeply for one another for decades. Peter’s every thought and conversation leads back to only Clarissa. He compares every relationship he has to her and is consumed by his feelings for her, but those feelings don’t seem to be real love. It is a nostalgic sentiment of his youth, a time where adulthood felt so far off in the future, when he could afford to be carefree and imprudent. Now as a grown man, Peter aches for that time in his life which he associates with the girl he loved back then. Clarissa also doesn’t love Peter in the traditional sense of the word. It’s hard to link Clarissa with any real romantic involvement at all really. Her relationship with Sally was more entwined with the urge to feel a sense of freedom and self identity. She loved the person she was when she was with her. Her relationship with Peter is also related to her attachment to her youth. Even though Richard has now proven himself to be an underwhelming choice for a life partner, Clarissa still believes she made the right choice by not marrying the intense and impulsive Peter. She may have had feelings for Richard back in the day, but now that their marriage is failing and they are sleeping in two different beds, there is no love in that relationship either. 

She never talks about pure, romantic love in relation to a person, for her the feelings of love and true affection are explored and exhibited via inanimate objects. She loves Big Ben and its loud, musical strikes, as well as taking long walks around Bond Street and simply living and being free. (“I love walking in London” p. 5) She loves observing the buzz of the city after the war, watching it spring back to life, people watching and visiting shops. “For Heaven only knows why one loves it so… she felt positive, by Acts of Parliament for the very reason: they love life” (p. 4). It is hinted that Richard cheats on his wife, but Clarissa still stays with him due to a sense of marital obligation, which is a big difference if compared to Ida from What Maisie Knew, who was dubbed a modern woman for her decision to divorce her husband. 

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Feb 22 2021
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Ida Farange, Mommy Dearest.

Following Michelle H. Phillips’ discussion of modernism in James’ novel, it is interesting to consider the maternal role or rather lack, of one that Ida occupies in her daughter’s life. In previous classes it was mentioned how modern the idea of a divorced woman was. James described a scenario where both the man and the woman were portrayed as willing and mutual participants in a divorce, as opposed to the concept of women being tied to a ruthless brute of a husband, or deemed an outcast for not being able to ‘save’ her marriage. Regardless of the problems within her romantic relationship with Beale, Ida was a terrible mother. It appears as though there was absolutely zero maternal compassion coming from her. She is often depicted abandoning Maisie for months on end while taking care of her affairs and engaging in verbal spars with her young daughter. It’s interesting that James plays into the double sided stereotypes of parental care, where it is usually always the father who refuses to interact with their child, and exists merely as a biological figure in their life. The role of the caring and protective guardian most often falls onto the woman, linking themes of femininity and maternal instincts, so it was unique to observe this terribly flawed female character who aside from being a divorcee also has multiple partners, and is a narcissist in her relationship with her daughter, thus breaking apart all the conventions of a ‘proper’ woman at the time.

Seemingly as if to her rescue, Miss. Overmore and Mrs. Wix enter the scene, taking on the role of a surrogate mother, trying to provide the care and knowledge Maisie was unable to attain with Ida. While it was not uncommon for children to be brought up by governesses and tutors, things took a different turn when both women began mirroring Ida’s behavior. The relationship Maisie’s mother and father had with each other was almost superimposed onto the two governesses. Both pairs of adults were trying to set the child against the other, and in all those efforts forgot to focus on Maisie’s best interest. In the long term, it does appear that Mrs. Wix, despite her lack of savvy world knowledge or wealth provides the closest thing Maisie has seen to a functional parent. She was the only character who fought to be Maisie without an ulterior motive. Throughout the whole novel, we as readers ponder what is it that Maisie knew, and in the end it seemed that in spite of her limited knowledge, the child knew who to remain loyal to, and how to pick the guardian that would provide her with a stable family life.

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