<論文>墓石と手紙 --『アブサロム、アブサロム！』におけるエクリチュールの欲望--

Abstract

The tombstone or the old letter many characters leave their thoughts or memories cannot be easily interpreted. William Faulkner not only refuses to authorize any assumptions about who wrote the letter to whom -- about the origin, destination, or meaning of the letter -- that might stabilize and simplify its reading. Instead, he willfully entangles its readers, both inside and outside the novel, in a web of competing readings, rereadings, and misreadings. Within the novel, we recieve at least six perspectives on reading this problematic letter. No single perspective or combination of perspectives produces a genuinely satisfying reading of the letter or provides an adequate paradigm for reading. The tombstone or the letter, however, provoke in and through each of its several readers a series of sustained meditations on the problems in the text. These detailed readings can help us to (re-) read not only the letter itself but also the Faulknerian text that generates -- and is generated by -- the letter.