Modernist Fiction and the Breakdown of Family Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Soseki's Kokoro

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Dimino, Andrea

Keywords

Family, Faulkner, William, Natsume, Soseki

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the breakdown of the family in modernist novels: William Faulkner�s The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Soseki Natsume�s Kokoro (1914). The introduction provides an overview of modernism and observes some specific literary aspects of modernism that Faulkner and Soseki share: the arbitrary beginning and ending of the novels, and the experience of loss. The first chapter discusses the demise of the Compsons in Faulkner�s The Sound and the Fury. The chapter identifies Mr. and Mrs. Compson�s failed parenting, changing culture, and the lack of love as the main causes of unhealthy relationships between the children, Benjy, Caddy, Jason, and Quentin, and the family breakup. The second chapter analyzes Kokoro by Soseki, who is considered the greatest Japanese modernist. In this novel, Sensei, a Meiji intellectual, is involved with two families who undergo a breakdown due to loneliness and to the lack of love and sensitivity. The family collapse is ultimately symbolized by the deaths of Sensei and K, Sensei�s best friend as a young man. The thesis concludes that the problem of human interaction intensifies the family conflicts and leads to the breakdown.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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