Hoofbeats, Groans, and Milk: Domesticated Animals and Gendered Bodies in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

ABSTRACT: This study scrutinizes William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying (1930), foregrounding the concept of the "animetaphor"—a term that encapsulates the metaphorical deployment of animals as a prism through which gender identity is interrogated within the text. By unraveling Faulkner's intricate depictions of animals and their dynamic interplay with human characters, this essay seeks to uncover the symbolic weight these creatures carry as nonverbal signifiers that reflect and shape the (de)construction of gender identities in southern culture. Beyond the confines of verbal articulation, profound insights into the fluidity of sexual identity emerge through the gaze of a mule, the resonant hoofbeats and groans of a horse, and the plaintive moans of a cow burdened by its own milk.