The Ideology of Autonomy: Form and Function in As I Lay Dying

Abstract

Faulkner Journal Ted Atkinson The Ideology of Autonomy: Form and Function in As I Lay Dying I n the early sections of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Cash Bundren remains in the background urgently working to construct his mother’s coffin in time for her passing and, subsequently, for the family’s burial march across Yoknapatawpha County.1 Despite the imminent deadline— or perhaps because of it—the final product is a testament to the precise execu­ tion of design that Cash deeply values as a result of his strong work ethic and dedication to craftsmanship. But completion also brings a moment of truth for the carpenter: the time when production gives way to reception and the object enters into the traffic of the world. In this regard, Cash’s project serves as a metaphor for the production of the novel itself, establishing Faulkner’s con­ cern with form and function as a means of exploring relations between art and social reality and, in turn, of laying bare the ideological dimensions of artistic autonomy—a fundamental principle of modernist aesthetics under consider­ able stress at the time of the novel’s production. Significantly, Faulkner began work on As I Lay Dying against the back­ drop of a national crisis—the stock market crash of 1929. Joseph Blotner highlights this contextual frame when describing the genesis of what would become Faulkner’s fifth published novel: “On October 25, 1929, the day after panic broke out on Wall Street, [Faulkner] took one of these [onion] sheets, unscrewed the cap from his fountain pen, and wrote at the top in blue ink, ‘As I Lay Dying.’ Then he underlined it twice and wrote the date in the upper right-hand corner” (1: 633). Faulkner’s composition process unfolded in the immediate aftermath of this signal event, providing now a precise historical and cultural frame of reference for examining how his treatment of autonomy responds ideologically to a severe blow delivered to the intertwined bodies of late capitalism and literary modernism. The market crash hit with sudden and considerable force, sending debil­ itating shock waves across the spectrum of American society. As T. H. Wat­ kins observes, the crash was so devastating because “the failure of the greatest speculative fever in American history profoundly weakened confidence in the* !I presented an initial version of this essay during a panel called “Faulkner and the 1930s,” sponsored by the William Faulkner Society at the 2004 MLA Convention in Philadelphia. I wish to thank the Society for the chance to test some of the ideas contained herein and to receive feedback from other Faulkner schol­ ars. In particular, I want to acknowledge a debt to John T. Matthews, the panel respondent, for constructive comments that led me to think about the ideological implications of autonomy in As I Lay Dying and, con­ sequently, to reconfigure my approach in a fundamental way. 15 16 Ted Atkinson The Ideology ofAutonomy basic soundness ... of one of the nation’s economic foundations” (75). It was an outcome that Faulkner, a writer branded by detractors and defenders alike as indifferent to current events in pursuit of aesthetic perfection, had already predicted via Jason Compson in the third section of The Sound and the Fury. “The market will be unstable, with a general downward tendency,” Jason fires off in an angry telegram to a broker. “Market just on point of blowing its head off” (SF 244). Whether or not the crash was a result of suicidal tendencies, it posed a serious threat to material well-being and feelings of national stability. Responses to the crisis registered in many sectors, including the cultural forma­ tion of literary modernism—a movement long marked by concern about the modern marketplace and mass culture. The abrupt economic downturn that engendered a loss of faith in fundamental American economic principles and social institutions prompted authors to reevaluate the concept of autonomy in defining relations between literature and social reality.2 Placing As I Lay Dying in this context shows Faulkner’s hand in this cultural work, as he responds to the prevailing condition of post-crash anxiety and, in so doing, undermines the claim to artistic...