The Limits of Reading: Closeted Readers, Safe Pleasure, and Reparation in Absalom, Absalom!

초록

In Absalom, Absalom! , William Faulkner creates a secluded reading space within a Harvard dormitory, where characters Quentin and Shreve engage in reading acts fueled by stories, letters, and memories from the Southern past. Within this protected environment, they explore transgressive desires, particularly those of a homoerotic and interracial nature, without jeopardizing their real -world racial and heterosexual privileges. This work connects this issue of reading at a safe distance to the imbalance between the discourse of race and that of homosexuality in our ways of discussing Faulkner, aiming to suggest more flexible models of ethical reading.

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