Incest, Miscegenation, and (Non)Linear Time in Absalom, Absalom! and Of One Blood

This paper is an exploration – though by no means a resolution – of the complex ways in which incest and miscegenation carry the potential to trouble heteropatriarchal, Western colonial concepts of linear time, especially as it relates to the family tree and dynastic futurity, all demonstrated through the lens of two 20th century American novels – William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Pauline Hopkins’s Of One Blood. Referring to the plot of both novels, I lay out one potential understanding of the relationship between incest, miscegenation, and time. Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of arborescence is used as a theoretical basis, with further arguments taken from Hortense Spillers and Jared Sexton.