Abstract

A Rose for Emily is one of the masterpieces of the famous American novelist William Faulkner. A lot of gothic techniques have been adopted by Faulkner in this short fiction to evoke a terrifying and spine-chilling atmosphere to expose the adverse impact of the Puritan ethics and the historic changes in South America of the 20th century upon its characters. This paper begins with a brief introduction to the background and the theme of the novel and then makes an analysis of the gothic horrors from the following aspects: characters, settings and plots. It aims to appreciate the gothic techniques of Faulkner and at the same time to well understand the profound historical connotation contained in these gothic horrors about the Southern Renaissance Period.

Key words: gothic horrors, characters, settings, plots

摘要

《献给艾米丽的一朵玫瑰花》是美国著名小说家威廉•福克纳的经典力作之一。在这部小说中，作者采用了许多哥特艺术手法来表现阴森恐怖、令人毛骨悚然的氛围，揭示了清教主义和二十世纪美国南方历史性巨变对当地人民的深远影响。本文从简要介绍该小说创作背景及主题入手，进一步对小说在人物塑造、场景设置和情节安排中所表现的哥特式恐怖进行分析，从而感受文学巨匠威廉•福克纳高超的哥特式写作技巧，深刻理解美国南方文艺复兴时期哥特恐怖所承载的历史内涵。

关键词：哥特式恐怖；人物塑造；场景设置；情节安排

1. Introduction
The novelist William Faulkner (1897-1962) is one of the most influential writers in American literature, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949. During his lifetime, Faulkner has created plenty of works, among which The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom and As I Lay Dying are widely known. And in terms of short novels and novelettes, Faulkner has also made an outstanding contribution. Wang Changrong once said in his book The History of Modern American Novel that Faulkner wrote short stories as a coherent whole.He writes them very vividly and holds his audience spell-bound. Thus, his works have enjoyed high artistic value.
Born in a Southern family in New Albany along the Mississippi river, Faulkner is largely influenced by the culture of Mississippi and the majority of his works are set there. He can perfectly display the humors and figures peculiar to people there and A Rose for Emily is the most representative one.