William Faulkner claimed that it may be necessary for a writer to "rob
his mother," should the need arise. "If a writer has to rob his mother,
he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of
old ladies," he remarked.
This study of Faulkner's paradoxical attitude toward women, particularly
mothers, will stimulate debate and concern, for his novels are shown
here to have presented them as both a source and a threat to being and
to language.
"My reading of Faulkner," the author says, "attempts more than an
identification of female stereotypes and an examination of misogyny, for
Faulkner, who almost certainly feared and mistrusted women, also sees in
them a mysterious, often threatening power, which is often aligned with
his own creativity and the grounds of his own fiction."
Drawing on both American and French feminist criticism, Robbing the
Mother explores Faulkner's artistic vision through the maternal
influence in such works as The Sound and the Fury; As I Lay Dying;
Sanctuary; Absalom, Absalom!; The Hamlet; Light in August; and
The Wild Palms.