A Companion to William Faulkner

Arguably the greatest novelist yet to emerge from the United States, William Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize, among other awards, for his narrative reconstructions of life in the US South. Since his death in 1962, scholarly interpretations of Faulkner’s work have flourished. This comprehensive Companion reflects the current dynamic state of Faulkner studies. Written by leading scholars, the text is designed to guide readers through the plethora of critical approaches to Faulkner. The volume is divided into five sections focusing on: studies of the contexts of Faulkner’s work; key questions addressed in Faulkner criticism; the genres and forms Faulkner encountered and altered; sample readings of particular works; and responses to Faulkner’s writing by publishers, film–makers, writers and others. Each contribution both exemplifies current Faulkner scholarship and critically reflects on previous interpretations.

Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Richard C. Moreland. Part I: Contexts:. 1. A Difficult Economy: Faulkner and the Poetics of Plantation Labor: Richard Godden (University of Sussex). 2. "We′re Trying Hard as Hell to Free Ourselves": Southern History and Race in the Making of William Faulkner′s Literary Terrain: Grace Elizabeth Hale (University of Virginia) and Robert Jackson (University of Virginia). 3. A Loving Gentleman and the Corncob Man: Faulkner, Gender, Sexuality, and The Reivers: Anne Goodwyn Jones (University of Mississippi). 4. "C′est Vraiment Dégueulasse": Meaning and Ending in A bout de souffle and If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem: Catherine Gunther Kodat (Hamilton College). 5. The Synthesis of Marx and Freud in Recent Faulkner Criticism: Michael Zeitlin (University of British Columbia). 6. Faulkner’s Lives: Jay Parini (Middlebury College). Part II: Questions:. 7. Reflections on Language and Narrative: Owen Robinson (University of Essex). 8. Race as Fact and Fiction in William Faulkner: Barbara Ladd (Emory University). 9. "Why Are You So Black?" Faulkner′s Whiteface Minstrels, Primitivism, and Perversion: John N. Duvall (Purdue University). 10. Shifting Sands: The Myth of Class Mobility: Julia Leyda (Sophia University, Tokyo). 11. Faulkner’s Families: Arthur F. Kinney (University of Massachusetts). 12. Changing the Subject of Place in Faulkner: Cheryl Lester (University of Kansas). 13. The State: Ted Atkinson (Augusta State University). 14. Violence in Faulkner’s Major Novels: Lothar Hönnighausen (University of Bonn). 15. An Impossible Resignation: William Faulkner’s Post–Colonial Imagination: Sean Latham (University of Tulsa). 16. Religion: Desire and Ideology: Leigh Anne Duck (University of Memphis). 17. Cinematic Fascination in Light in August: Peter Lurie (University of Richmond). 18. Faulkner’s Brazen Yoke: Pop Art, Modernism, and the Myth of the Great Divide: Vincent Allan King (Black Hills State University). Part III: Genres and Forms:. 19. Faulkner’s Genre Experiments: Thomas L. McHaney (author). 20. “Make It New”: Faulkner and Modernism: Philip Weinstein (Swarthmore College). 21. Faulkner’s Versions of Pastoral, Gothic, and the Sublime: Susan V. Donaldson (College of William and Mary). 22. Faulkner, Trauma, and the Uses of Crime Fiction: Greg Forter (University of South Carolina). 23. William Faulkner’s Short Stories: Hans H. Skei (University of Oslo). 24. Faulkner’s Non–Fiction: Noel Polk (Mississippi State University). 25. Faulkner’s Texts: Noel Polk (Mississippi State University). Part IV: Sample Readings:. 26. “By It I Would Stand or Fall”: Life and Death in As I Lay Dying: Donald M. Kartiganer (University of Mississippi). 27. Faulkner and the Southern Arts of Mystification in Absalom, Absalom!: John Carlos Rowe (University of Southern California). 28. “The Cradle of Your Nativity”: Codes of Class Culture and Southern Desire in Faulkner′s Snopes Trilogy: Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber (George Washington University). Part V: After Faulkner:. 29. “He Doth Bestride the Narrow World Like a Colossus”: Faulkner’s Critical Reception: Timothy P. Caron (California State University). 30. Faulkner, Latin America, and the Caribbean: Influence, Politics, and Academic Disciplines: Deborah Cohn (Indiana University). 31. Faulkner’s Continuance: Patrick O’Donnell (Michigan State University). Index

Richard C. Moreland is Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies in English, and former Director of Graduate Studies in English at Louisiana State University. His previous publications include Faulkner and Modernism: Rereading and Rewriting (1990) and Learning from Difference: Teaching Morrison, Twain, Ellison, and Eliot (1999).

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