{"id":14575,"date":"2011-06-27T03:48:55","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T03:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=14575"},"modified":"2015-03-08T19:17:40","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T19:17:40","slug":"white-womens-complicity-and-the-taboo-faulkners-layered-critique-of-the-%e2%80%9cmiscegenation-complex%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=14575","title":{"rendered":"White women’s complicity and the taboo: Faulkner’s layered critique of the \u201cmiscegenation complex\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

White women’s complicity and the taboo: Faulkner’s layered critique of the \u201cmiscegenation complex\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Women’s Studies<\/a>
\nVolume 22, Issue 4<\/a> (1993)
\npages 497-506
\nDOI: 10.1080\/00497878.1993.9978998<\/a><\/p>\n

Karen M. Andrews
\n<\/strong>Kobe College, Japan<\/em><\/p>\n

In Faulkner’s<\/a> social milieu, the proscription against miscegenation<\/a> between white women and black men was so deeply ingrained as to be “common sense.” White male hegemony promoted a double standard which tolerated one form of miscegenation, between white men and black women, while virulently prohibiting the other form. Miscegenation virtually came to mean only the taboo form, thus silencing the reality of white male exploitation of black women.<\/strong> As James Kinney argues, the “post-war apologists for racism tried to convert the rape victim into the rapist, to reverse reality in order to justify past and present inhumanity” (227).<\/p>\n

In works such as Absalom, Absalom!<\/a><\/em> and Go Down, Moses<\/a><\/em>, Faulkner critiques the sexual and racial injustices wrought by this double standard. Moreover, he exposes the whites’ paranoid and often violent reactions to the taboo\u2014the “miscegenation complex”\u2014in several novels, particularly Light in August<\/a><\/em>, and in stories, such as “Dry September<\/a>,” [Read the full text here<\/a>.] “Elly” and “Mountain Victory.” In “Dry September,” probably the most anthologized of his short fiction, Faulkner demystifies the “miscegenation complex” by exposing the complicity of whites, male and female, who exploit the taboo for personal and political gain.<\/p>\n

“Dry September” entails a multilayered critique of the miscegenation\/rape complex. At the most obvious level of analysis, Faulkner employs the character Hawkshaw as a counterhegemonic voice among the radical racists, Unlike the other white men gathered about the barbershop, Hawkshaw critiques the belief that any rumor of the interracial taboo involves a black…<\/p>\n

Read or purchase the article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

White women’s complicity and the taboo: Faulkner’s layered critique of the \u201cmiscegenation complex\u201d Women’s Studies Volume 22, Issue 4 (1993) pages 497-506 DOI: 10.1080\/00497878.1993.9978998 Karen M. Andrews Kobe College, Japan In Faulkner’s social milieu, the proscription against miscegenation between white women and black men was so deeply ingrained as to be “common sense.” White male […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1196,8,20,25],"tags":[6673,6672,490,6674],"class_list":["post-14575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-usa","category-women","tag-karen-andrews","tag-karen-m-andrews","tag-william-faulkner","tag-womens-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}