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Kim, Mina. “Tragedy of Undifferentiated Self: A Reading of ‘A Rose for Emily’ through Family System Theory.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 39.4 (2013): 39-56. This paper starts with the question, “Why does Miss Emily commit her monstrous act?” Emily killed her lover with arsenic and kept his body in her room for 40 years. To answer the question, I use Bowen’s family system theory and his concept of “differentiation of self.” That’s because Faulkner has shown his interest in family in his major works and now he specially focuses on father and daughter relationship in this short story. Emily is the only daughter with no mother, and she establishes an exclusive and dependent relationship with her father. Her father, who has pride in his family, is oppressive and dominating in this relationship and Emily fails to differentiate herself from the family ego mass. Emily, who has a low level of differentiation of self or is in a state of “no-self”, remains emotionally attached to her father. Therefore her father’s death and her lover(a substitute for her father)’s threatened loss lead her into psychotic nothingness and inability of social functioning. She retreats into her world of fantasy where there is no limit between life and death and this explains her gruesome and monstrous deed. (Jeonju University)