From Joe Christmas to Jim Crow: Echoes of Minstrelsy in William Faulkner's "Light in August".

This study focuses predominantly on William Faulkner's novel Light in August. My examination of this text calls upon the rich history of the American theatrical form of the minstrel show as well as the turmoil of the American South following the Civil War. By examining Light in August through the lens of these two moments in American history, I argue that Faulkner's character Joe Christmas is a representation of the racial anxiety that plagued Jim Crow America. More specifically, I claim that Christmas is an allegorical embodiment of the racial performativity the space of the minstrel stage sought to explore. By examining the moments that Joe Christmas spends in Joanna Burden's "Dark House" this study draws parallels to the traditional three part structure of late nineteenth century minstrel performances and argue that Joe Christmas is, in actuality, Jim Crow the theatrical minstrel figure of the 1800s.