William Faulkner

A Southerner, a regionalist, a modernist and a psychological writer

Born in 1897, in New Albany, MI. Lived in Oxford, MI most of his life. Died in 1962, aged 64 from a myocardial infarction. William came from an old southern family. He joined the Canadian, and later the British, Royal Air Force during the First World War, studied for a while at the University of Mississippi, and temporarily worked for a New York book store and a New Orleans newspaper. Except for some trips to Europe and Asia, and a few brief stays in Hollywood as a scriptwriter, he worked on his novels and short stories on a farm in Oxford.

The world around him The first half of the nineteenth century saw the rise of a number of prominent Southern families such as the Compsons. These aristocratic families espoused traditional Southern values. Men were expected to act like gentlemen, display courage, moral strength, perseverance, and chivalry in defence of the honour of their family name. Women were expected to be models of feminine purity, grace, and virginity until it came time for them to provide children to inherit the family legacy. Faith in God and profound concern for preserving the family reputation provided the grounding for these beliefs. The Civil War (1861 1865) devastated many of these once-great Southern families economically, socially, and psychologically. Faulkner contends that in the process, the Compsons, and other similar Southern families, lost touch with the reality of the world around them and became lost in a haze of self-absorption. This self-absorption corrupted core values once held dear and left the newer generations completely unequipped to deal with the modern world. The sound and the fury The Compsons corruption of Southern values results in a household completely devoid of love, which once held the family together. Both parents are distant and ineffective. Caddy, the only child who shows an ability to love, is eventually disowned. Though Quentin loves Caddy, his love is neurotic, obsessive, and overprotective. None of the men experience any true romantic love, and are thus unable to marry and carry on the family name.

At the conclusion of the novel, Dilsey, a black maid, is the only loving member of the household, the only character who maintains her values without the corrupting influence of self-absorption. She thus comes to represent a hope for the renewal of traditional Southern values in an uncorrupted and positive form. The novel ends with Dilsey as the torchbearer for these values, and, as such, the only hope for the preservation of the Compson legacy. Faulkner implies that the problem is not necessarily the values of the old South, but the fact that these values were corrupted by families such as the Compsons and must be recaptured for any Southern greatness to return.

Faulkner began to write soon after the war. At first he wanted to be a poet, and he wrote many pieces of poetry, but although showing talent, they werent remarkable and he didnt succeed. His first published work appeared in 1924, and it was a volume of poems entitled The Marble Faun. In 1925 he went to New Orleans, and there he met Sherwood Anderson, who influenced him in his first novel, Soldiers Pay. Anderson persuaded a publisher to print it, and Faulkner was launched as an author. In 1929 he wrote The Sound and the Fury, persuaded by Phil Stone, a friend he had met in University. He persuaded Faulkner to try to write the best book he could, without thinking of its marketability. This novel was critically successful, but not financially. Since then, he devoted his time to full-time writing. In 1950, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and delivered a brief speech of acceptance, which was often reprinted and contained important clues to his works. Faulkner is sometimes considered an agrarian naturalist. His novels are generally laid in rural settings, but the problems treated on them are psychological and moral rather than physical. The great subject is the decline of the South, shown by economic sterility, moral disintegration and the struggle to resist the civilization of the North. The protagonists of his novels are decayed aristocrats, old Southern families riddled with moral decay. Another class of characters are the Negroes, often more heroic and admired than the aristocrats. From another point of view, Faulkner can be considered a regionalist, because, although his region was imaginary, it was based on reality. Faulkner is greatly concerned with erotic passions and

cruelty, and the connection between them. His cult of violence is twisted, melancholy and guilty, and his characters are seldom moved by normal urges. There is little overt political content in Faulkners work. He sympathizes with the aristocracy, as decadent as it may be, and he shows little interest in humanitarianism or socialistic planning, especially in his earlier works. Because of this, he has been wrongly accused of condescension toward Negroes. However, his later work, Intruder in the Dust (1948), he shows a more openly liberal attitude, and offers a positive solution to the Negro problem. Although Faulkners best work is concerned with the American South, the problems of the South, such as peoples relationship with the land, the moral wrong of possession and the lo ss of old courtesies and values were also the problems of the whole nation, as well as those of the twentieth century world.

His work In an attempt to create a saga of his own, Faulkner has invented a host of characters typical of the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South. The human drama in Faulkner's novels is built on the model of the actual, historical drama: extending over almost a century and a half each story and each novel contributes to the construction of a whole, which are the imaginary Yoknapatawpha County and its inhabitants. Their theme is the decay of the old South, as represented by the Sartoris and Compson families, and the emergence of ruthless and brash newcomers, the Snopeses. Theme and technique - the distortion of time through the use of the inner monologue are fused particularly successfully in The Sound and the Fury (1929), the downfall of the Compson family seen through the minds of several characters. The theme of racial prejudice is brought up again in Absalom, Absalom! (1936), where a young man is rejected by his father and brother because of his mixed blood. William Faulkners novels have immense spiritual significance. Faulkner dives deep into the contemporary American individual and finds sex and religion, along with the Negro issues, to be the root cause of obsession in the mind of man; that does not permit him to reconcile himself to the invisible essence of human existence. The result is that life has lost its charm and harmony and there is no satisfaction; only deep frustration. But then, along with the dark atmosphere prevailing all over, the novelist renders very artistically the transcendental life of a human self. That is so because

suffering brings about self-realisation and revelations dawn upon man. The heart of man may not logically argue but at moments suddenly reveals to him, like a flash of light, the meaning of his whole existence. William Faulkner experienced life intensely and communicates his recurrent themes, in his novels, through divergent patterns. Hence, we get a new theme of transcendental mind. The human being is not essentially good but he is capable of achieving goodness and something of eternal value on account of his faith in the Almighty God and love and service of mankind. In his novels we experience mystical themes, a vision of the elan vital, the life force, enduring in time man will endure. In other words, man may indulge in destruction but ultimately artificial social structure will be replaced by universal brotherhood. These are William Faulkners themes and messages to humanity. Life is not riddle but mystery to mankind. Still, man enjoys himself, what he is and how he is related to his fellow men. William Faulkner pushes us on to the path of inward enlightenment & revelations dawn upon the novelist. He adopts an irrational attitude; for him, ideas and facts have very little connection with truth. Man has been in search of truth since time immemorial but life is likely to remain a mystery; human selves and human relationships are indeed so complicated that the whole truth can never be comprehended. All that is there about man is not very significant but certain human experiences, emotions or sentiments do acquire meanings which time or space can never erase. William Faulkner has tried to explore fundamental humanity.

Techniques Distortion of time through the use of inner monologue, Stream of consciousness Multiple narrations or points of views Time shifts within narrative Allegory Symbolism Empty centre

Literary traits

Faulkners novels are generally laid in rural settings, but the problems they treat are psychological and moral rather than physical. His great subject on the surface is the decline of the South: its economic sterility, its moral disintegration, and its struggle to resist the progressive and materialistic civilization of the North. The protagonists of his novels are: The decayed aristocrats: They are the old Southern families, past the peak of their prosperity

and riddled with moral decay, yet still finer than their antagonists. The efficient, materialistic carpetbaggers, merchants, and entrepreneurs: They are gradually

superseding the aristocrats. The Negroes: They are often more heroic and admired than the previous ones.

Themes Faulkner wrote during four decades in which America changed a great deal, as it endured the aftermath of World War I, Prohibition, the Jazz Age, the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. Naturally, he examined themes that have concerned many serious writers: Cultural conflict and change, as well as Generational Gap (A Rose for Emily) Tragic individualism (A Rose for Emily, Dry September) The weight of the past Sartoris/Flags in the Dust) Hatred due to the aftermath of the civil war Hatred between blacks and whites, indians and blacks, whites and indians. The power (and comedy) of sex (A Rose for Emily, Dry September, Sanctuary) The white goddess (Dry September) Conflict between conscience and duty to family (Absalom, Absalom! Burning Barn, Lo!) Clan loyalty and its betrayal The corruptibility of the innocent in war (Soldiers pay, Two soldiers) (Soldiers pay, That Evening Sun, Red Leaves, There was a Queen,

Time is an entity in Faulkners world. The past exists so compellingly in the present for his
characters that it sometimes seems that only the past really exists for them. That historical context is almost infinitely complex; yet it is something like this: The South once knew an order and a

tradition based on honor and personal integrity, but it was guilty of the exploitation of fellow human beings. Because of this great guilt, came the Civil War and ended the paradise of the noble, but guilty past. If it is to win its way out, it will do through the reawakening moral vision of its youth and the prevailing strength of its Negroes. There is little political content in Faulkners work. He shows little interest in humanitarianism or socialistic planning, especially in his earlier works, and has even been wrongly accused of condescension toward Negroes. His approach to the Negro problem is purely aesthetic, psychological and physiological. It should not be imagined that because he uses the word nigger and sometimes shows Negroes as lazy and incompetent like other people he is a white supremacist. Faulkner, like Hemingway, is greatly concerned with erotic passions, with cruelty, and with the connection between the two. He does not relate this horrors for mere shock effect; he is interested in aberration as a symbol of Southern decline, and as such treats it with the superb objectivity of a true artist.

Style During his all writing years, the author used various writing styles. The narrative varies from the traditional storytelling of Light in August and a series of vignette-like snapshots in As I Lay Dying to the collage of The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom, which is often considered Faulkner's masterpiece. Where Faulkners style is most difficult and the narrative line most complex, he demands the active participation of the reader in the creative process. This complex style may be regarded as consistent with his difficult objective: to keep in focus the immediate character - the human heart in conflict while evoking the past, which is always present with us. Because his novels treat the decay and anguish of the South following the Civil War, they are rich in violent and sordid events. But they are grounded in a profound and compassionate humanism that celebrates the tragedy, energy, and humour of ordinary human life.