Spatial Narrative and Identity Constructions in As I Lay Dying

Abstract

As I Lay Dying is a masterpiece by the Southern American writer Faulkner, telling the story of the Bundren family's journey to the town of Jefferson to bury Mistress Addie. Upon its publication, the novel attracted scholarly attention. The novel's characterisation, religious themes and artistic techniques all constitute hotspots of scholarly attention. In contrast, the academia has not paid enough attention to the social factors behind the novel, and the research is not deep enough. In the author's view, My Time to Die not only reproduces the poor life of farmers, but also touches on the game and identity construction between the urban and rural spaces in the American South. In the process of trying to integrate into the town space, the pressures and restrictions experienced by the Bundren family reflect the structural domination of the town over the countryside. The shift of multiple perspectives even breaks the coherence of the narrative, presenting the Bundren family as a fragmented and conflicted underprivileged group, and demonstrating the existential dilemma of rural people in the process of urbanisation. With the in-depth study of narrative space, Long Diyong's theory of spatial narrative provides a new perspective for interpreting As I Lay Dying. Based on this theory, interpreting the spatial elements in the novel in terms of story space, formal space and psychological space can analyze the fate of the characters in greater depth, analyze the character traits, and allow readers to feel the author's writing charm.