VIOLENCE IN WILLIAM FAULKNER’S LIGHT IN AUGUST (1932)

By relying on Michel Foucault’s theory of social discourse and power/ knowledge where culture, customs and other elements of society are seen as the source of shared knowledge imposed on the individuals, this paper explores the theme of violence in William Faulkner’s novel Light in August (1932) to prove Joe Christmas’ violence as the result of his exposure to the social discourse of the time he lives in, namely the South during the Jim Crow era. The paper proves violence in the novel as mostly connected to the character of Joe Christmas and explores why Joe Christmas, even though the main enactor of violence, is not regarded as a villain but as an anti-hero. The period in which Christmas lives is the Jim Crow South where blackness was regarded as inferior, negative and evil which affects Joe’s self-perception and his actions. Joe, the captive of society, exhibits violence because the only thing he has been thought is to respond with violence. The paper will analyze several parts of the novel connected to Joe Christmas and violence to prove how violence in Faulkner’s novel does not exist per se but serves to prove how damaging the effect of society and social discourse can be.