This paper explores the importance of auditory imagery in Faulkner's novel "The Sound and the Fury" and points out that previous research has overlooked the influence of soundscapes on the relationship between characters and the field. The article analyzes how auditory imagery reveals the subjectivity of characters, activates conscious activities, and shapes the ghostly atmosphere of old houses. At the same time, the metaphor of sound as the ultimate meaning of missing life was explored, and embodied cognition and phenomenological methods were used to track how auditory imagery integrates auditory perception into phenomenological consciousness, and to re-examine the issue of meaning in the novel.

The auditory subjectivity in the concept of 'things beyond words'

The novel 'Noise and Fury' constructs a narrative through the characters' inner language, which includes various difficult to understand sounds that stimulate the interaction between auditory and motor imagery in the reader's mind, helping to understand the subjectivity of the characters. Inner language is a process of self dialogue, involving the auditory imagery of imagining hearing oneself speak and the motor imagery of silent reading. Cognitive literature research points out that textual clues can awaken external and internal echoes in readers, corresponding to indirect listening and inner meditation, respectively, and affect meaning construction. Benji's inner language is manifested as a scattered stream of consciousness, with others' scolding and his own humming causing a paradox between auditory and motor imagery, resulting in his subjectivity remaining in the infancy stage. Quentin's inner language becomes silent in the cycle of auditory and motor imagery, reflecting the ideological struggle between society and self. Jiesheng's inner language is close to public communication and ridicule, with prominent motor imagery and less emphasis on auditory imagery and listener identity, demonstrating his id stance. Dilsey's narrative unfolds from an omniscient perspective, where the auditory experience of the gospel transcends language, melting her into the universal human subject. Auditory imagery and motor imagery make language materiality a way to understand the subjectivity of characters through bodily sensations, and the interactive characteristics of different characters correspond to their subjectivity features. The inner language in novels serves as a phenomenological "voice", presenting the conscious activities of characters and enabling readers to transition from language media perception to psychological experience.

Auditory errors in conscious activities

Explored the role of auditory imagery in the conscious activities of characters in "The Sound and the Fury" and its differences from auditory objects. In Benji's conscious activities, auditory images such as hallucinations, self talk, and self listening reveal his memories, desires, and emotions, while reflecting his brain's possible prediction failures and self-monitoring failures. Benji's auditory imagery is a combination of reality and illusion, based partly on actual events and partly on imagination. Quentin's conscious activities are filled with self talk and self listening, and his auditory imagery is closely related to his sister Katie's infidelity, inspiring his desire to redeem her. In Jason's consciousness, auditory imagery exposed his inner guard, agitation, and longing, and he satisfied these emotional needs through eavesdropping. In Dilsey's consciousness, auditory imagery possesses divinity, and through listening to religious hymns and sermons, she demonstrates a profound understanding of the common suffering of humanity. Auditory imagery, as a result of the brain's erroneous perception of auditory objects, gives sound a lifelike feature in a person's consciousness, reflecting their psychological state and emotional depth.

A haunted old house with a ghostly atmosphere

Explored the manifestation of auditory imagery and ghostly atmosphere in the Compson mansion in 'The Sound and the Fury'. Auditory imagery is not only integrated into psychological consciousness, but also closely linked to relationships with residences, others, and families, forming a ghostly space that affects the presence within the space. The sounds in the old house, such as raindrops, breathing, crying, etc., create a diffuse sense of enclosure, producing a sensory and emotional lingering effect. These voices liberated the atmosphere of the old mansion from the architectural space that symbolized patriarchy and aristocratic order, heralding the decline of the family. The ghostly atmosphere endows the old mansion with a new sense of place, where absence and presence are entangled. Katie, as the central character, although left the old house, influenced the psychological activities of the three brothers like the main tuner. The entanglement of ghost atmosphere requires listeners to immerse themselves in the intermittent experience of soundscapes, which determines the way the subject perceives family life. The Kempson family refuses to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the place, resulting in emotional indifference and lack of experience within the family. The auditory atmosphere has a constructive effect on the subject's experience, bringing the auditory subject into a tragic atmosphere of family trauma. The novel uses auditory imagery as a medium of "absent presence" to depict the meaningless noise and commotion in life stories, and the experience of this noise and commotion itself is the meaning of life.