“Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other.”

a brief introduction to SOUTHERN GOTHIC LITERATURE

the story takes place in the American South, both in region and culture SOUTHERN GOTHIC combines Romanticism (which emphasizes emotions in art) and horror (which focuses on fear and grotesqueness)

...generally depicts the South as an ugly place with ugly people, but does not necessarily consider ugly a bad thing....is realism ad nauseam....responds to the lies that the South often tells about itself (i.e. Westerns)....finds beauty in unexpected places. SOUTHERN GOTHIC

Harper Lee

Cormac McCarthy

Flannery O’Connor

William Faulkner

Mostly lived in Mississippi, but spent time in New York, Louisiana, & France. - Wrote 19 novels, 125 stories, & 20 screenplays. - Never graduated high school or college. - Too short for the U.S. Air Force, so he joined the British one, but WWI ended before he saw action. - Widely considered one of the greatest American writers, especially in terms of Southern fiction. - Won a Nobel, Pulitzer, & National Book Award FAULKNER

- Named after his legendary great-grandfather, a successful renaissance man. -Raised by book-lovers and taught to draw and paint at a young age. - Grew up with a black nanny named Caroline Barr, who raised him until he left home. - Mostly lived in Mississippi. - Too restless for high school, never kept a job for long, and only spent three semesters in college. INFLUENCES

- Captures authentic Southern dialects and characters. - Concerned with Southern life, racial politics, sexuality, class, family dynamics, and the inner self. - Experiments with style and breaks rules. Stream-of-consciousness is a major technique. - Many stories (including this book) take place in a fictional place called “Yoknapatawpha County.” - Novels often demand investment from the reader and don’t reveal much for dozens of pages. STYLE

- Published in 1930, just after stock market crashes and the Great Depression begins. - Faulkner said he wrote in six weeks while working in a boiler room at Ole Miss and never went back to edit it. - Follows the Bundren family as they travel across the state to bury their mother, Addie. - Has fifteen narrators and primarily uses stream- of-consciousness narration, though even this style is broken from time to time. AS I LAY DYING

Anse CHARACTERS Addie CashDarlJewelDewey DellVardaman (17)(7-10) (19?)(25?)(27?) VernonCora Kate BUNDREN TULL Eula OTHERS Dr. Peabody Lafe Rev. Whitfield

...Faulkner’s version of the South. How is it similar to or different from your version?...the purpose behind the techniques....how the family functions. What threatens to tear them apart? What keeps them together?...the poor white struggle versus the poor black struggle in the South....the weirdness. Embrace it. If you get a little lost, just keep reading. It may be intentional....quotes and unique phrases. Those quizzes will be back....themes revolving around family, class, tradition, loyalty, secrets, dignity, and death. PAY ATTENTION TO...