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...