Language, Subjectivity and Ideology in "A Rose for Emily"

Authors

  • Semiramis Yağcıoğlu Author

Keywords:

A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner, interpellation, Louis Althusser, discourse

Abstract

This article examines the operation of ideology in William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” through Louis Althusser’s concept of interpellation. It argues that the narrative constructs Miss Emily as an ideological subject shaped by class and social discourse rather than as an autonomous individual. By analyzing narrative structure and discourse, the article demonstrates how readers are positioned within specific interpretive frameworks. Drawing on theories by Émile Benveniste and Kaja Silverman, the study critiques earlier readings that overlook the narrator’s ideological function and emphasizes the role of discourse in shaping meaning.

 

(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)

References

Althusser, Louis. Lenin and Philosophy. Trans. Ben Brewster. London: Monthly Review, 1971.

Bakhtin, Mikhail M. The Dialogic Imagination; Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. University of Texas Slavic Series. 1. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.

Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wand, 1972.

Benveniste, Emile. Problems in General Linguistics. Trans. Mary Elizabeth Meek. Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1971

Brooks, Cleanth and Robert Penn Warren. Understanding Fiction. London: Prentice-Hall, 1959.

Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Concise Anthology of American Literature. Gen. ed. George McMichael. New York: Macmillan, 1985

Fetterley, Judith. The Resisting Reader; A Feminist Approach to American Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.

Fowler, Roger. Literature as Social Discourse. London: Batsford, 1981.

Kavanagh, James H. "Ideology." Critical Terms for Literary Study. Ed. Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

Lahey, Michael. "Women and Law in Faulkner". Women's Studies 22 (1993): 517- 524.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Trans. Claire Jacobson and Brooke Grundfest. Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1967.

-----. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Trans. James Harle Bell, John Richard von Sturmer and Rodney Needham. Boston: Beacon, 1969.

Pécheux, Michel. Language, Semantics and Ideology. Trans. Harbaus Nagpal. London: Macmillan, 1975.

Silverman, Kaja . The Subject of Semiotics. New York : Oxford University Press, 1983 .

Voss, Arthur. The American Short Story. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1973.

Downloads

Published

1995-10-01

How to Cite

Language, Subjectivity and Ideology in "A Rose for Emily". (1995). Journal of American Studies of Turkey, 2, 49-59. https://www.jast.org.tr/index.php/main/article/view/111