William Faulkner (1897-1962)

Faulkner--who had changed the spelling of his last name from Falkner upon publishing his first book of poetry in 1924--was the oldest of four sons born to Murray Charles and Maud Butler Falkner.  While he was still a child, the family settled in Oxford in northern Mississippi.  Faulkner lived most of his life in the town, which he called "a little postage stamp of native soil," a village of unpaved streets with a population of 1500 people. 

When he reached the age of 13, he began to write poetry When he reached the age of 13, he began to write poetry.  He also enjoyed sports and played quarterback at Oxford High School until his nose was broken.  He dropped out of school after receiving a "D" in English to go to work in his grandfather's bank.

As war loomed across the horizon, Faulkner tried enlisting in the army but was turned away for being too short.  He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and received his basic training in Toronto.  He served with the RAF in World War I but did not see any action, which didn't stop him from telling people later that he had been shot down over France.

"The writer's only responsibility is to his art "The writer's only responsibility is to his art.  He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one.  He has a dream.  It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it.  He has no peace until then.  Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written.  If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies." - from Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, 1959

After the war, Faulkner briefly studied literature at the University of Mississippi.  He continued writing poetry and also drew cartoons for the university's humor magazine, The Scream.  The magazine's editor recalled, "I liked the cartoons better than the poetry."

In 1920, Faulkner left the university without receiving a degree and moved to New York City, where he worked as a clerk in a bookstore.  After that, he returned to Oxford where he supported himself as postmaster at the University of Mississippi until he was fired for reading on the job.  He drifted to New Orleans, where Sherwood Anderson encouraged him to write fiction rather than poetry.  Faulkner took him up on the suggestion

In 1926, after publishing his first novel, Soldier's Pay, about a young soldier returning from the war physically and psychologically disabled, he followed up with Mosquitoes, a satirical account of the Bohemian life of the poets and intellectuals living in New Orleans.  The author's early writing shows the influence of Keats, Tennyson, and the literature of the 1890s.

Faulkner wrote Sartoris (1929), the first of fifteen novels set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional region of Mississippi loosely patterned after Lafayette County.  It was a Chickasaw Indian word that meant "water passes slowly through flatlands." Sartoris was later reissued under the title, Flags in the Dust (1973).  The Yoknapatawpha novels spanned the decades of the South's post-Civil War economic decline through the Great Depression.  They are filled with racism, class distinction, and the vagaries of the southern family, all recurring Faulknerian themes.

Along the way, the author used various writing styles Along the way, 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.  It records a range of voices and varying points-of-view, all trying to unravel the mysteries of Thomas Sutpen's violent life.

Architecture was important to the author Architecture was important to the author.  He restored Rowan Oak to its previous glory, named some of his books after various buildings (The Mansion), and depicted them in his writings with great care and deliberation: "It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street." - from A Rose for Emily

To earn money, Faulkner worked in Hollywood off and on for two decades, contributing to screenplays such as Today We Live (1933) and Land of the Pharaos (1955).  His own stories were considered too wild for Hollywood during the Hays Code of Decency days, dealing, as they did, with rape, incest, suicide, and more.  Between scriptwriting, Faulkner published several novels:  Pylon (1934), the story of four adults and a child who travel from one air show to another; Absalom, Absalom!, The Wild Palms (1939), a story of the Snopes family in which the character McCord is based on Ernest Hemingway and parallels that author's A Farwell to Arms; and Go Down Moses and Other Stories (1942), containing "The Bear," one of his best short fiction pieces.

By 1945, with Faulkner's novels out of print, the author again turned to Hollywood and began writing scripts, mostly for director Howard Hawks, who had read Faulkner's first novel and recommended it to his friends.  Faulkner House Museum French Quarter New Orleans

Faulkner House Museum French Quarter New Orleans

Faulkner worked with Hawks, among others, on the film The Big Sleep (1946), based on Raymond Chandler's novel and starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  He also worked with him on To Have and Have Not (1944), based freely on Ernest Hemingway's novel.  Hemingway had just turned down Hawks' offer to work on the screenplay of his own book, to which Hawks replied, "I'll get Faulkner to do it; he can write better than you can anyway."

In 1946, Faulkner underwent a second period of success with the publication of The Portable Faulkner.  Three years later, he received the Nobel Prize for Peace in the category of literature.  But by then, the author had done some serious damage to his health by hard drinking.  His wife's drug addiction and declining health only added to a stressful family situation.  "I will always believe that my first responsibility is to the artist, the work," he wrote in a letter; '"it is terrible that my wife does not realize or at least accept that."

His stints in Hollywood didn't do much to strengthen his family life, either.  Securely away from home, he carried on a series of affairs, from secretive to flamboyant.  One of his paramours, script-girl Meta Carpenter Wilde, wrote a book about their relationship.  Meanwhile, Faulkner continued writing novels.  In 1951, he published Requiem for a Nun, followed three years later by A Fable, which was poorly received.  His The Town in 1957 and The Mansion continued the saga of the Snopes family. 

His last book, The Reivers (1962), placed the author back in the childhood setting he knew and loved so well from Sanctuary.  It was to be a final reunion: on June 17 of that year, Faulkner was thrown from a horse.  He died of a coronary occlusion three weeks later.

In his obituary, The New York Times (July 7, 1962) cited his critics and stated that "Mr. Faulkner's writings showed an obsession with murder, rape, incest, suicide, greed and general depravity that did not exist anywhere but in the author's mind.“ How wrong that assessment has turned out to be.

As I Lay Dying By William Faulkner

He is best known for his Yoknapatawpha cycle, a human comedy of the American South.

He wrote all of his books in longhand, often struggling with words and definitions.  He didn't own a dictionary.  Often, he would make up his own words to suit the moment, combine two words into one, or turn nouns into verbs and vice versa.  If he couldn't spell something, he would walk down to the local drugstore and ask someone there to look it up for him.  Sometimes, he would stop people on the street and ask them for the meaning of a word.  "I'm looking for a word.  It means the same as 'running fast' but I don't want to use 'running fast.'"

Faulkner’s Unusual Format As a leader of the Modernist Movement, Faulkner’s primary accomplishment is his use of experimental narration. As I Lay Dying is told by 15 separate narrators, each telling his or her own version of the events, sometimes supporting and sometimes contradicting each other.

Faulkner’s Unusual Format Hallmarks of Faulkner’s Technique Shifting narration from one character to another Stream-of-consciousness narration Disruptions in standard chronology The variety and range of personalities make his “little postage stamp of native soil” representative of the entire human race.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Type of Work Novel Genre Satire of heroic narrative; rural novel; comedy; tragedy Tone Varies from narrator to narrator to narrator: tragic, comic, calm, hysterical, emotional, detached Setting 1920s, in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Major Conflict The members of the Bundren family trek across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Source of the Title Agamemnon’s speech to Odysseus in the Odyssey, Book XI “As I lay dying the woman with the dog’s eyes would not close my eyes for me as I descended into Hades.”

Major Concepts/Ideas Existentialism: Reality is recreated every moment. Reality shifts and changes based on experiences. Fear of being nothing; nothingness Death is not a beginning or end but rather a moving in or out. Truth depends on a person’s perspective.

Words vs. Experience: Words are only symbols and cannot effectively communicate what a thing or person really is. Class: Country Folk City Folk Religion

Community Relationships: Everyone knows everyone else. People help each other in times of need. Value of Physical Labor: A character’s worth is often tied to sweat and physical labor. Dark Humor: A contrast between events and how people react People often react to a sad event in undignified way.

Tips for Reading Faulkner Be patient. Be willing to re-read. Focus on the characters. Look for timeless tales. Make the story your own.

Things to Look For Characters often express conflicting opinions and contradicting sides to the same story. Look for changes in typeface. When the text goes from normal to italic it indicates a shift in perspective or a character’s inner thoughts.

How to Read Faulkner If you get lost… Check to see whose name is at the beginning of the chapter. Go back to the last place you remember the story make sense and reread. Ask yourself, “Where is Addie?”

Reading Assignment For Each Unit Meeting: As you read, do the following: 1. Annotate for character descriptions, literary devices, confusing passages, etc. 2. Write down questions you may have. 3. Also, write down two higher order thinking question for discussion. 4. Be ready to discuss all of the above.

Unit 1 = Pages 3-52 Unit 2 = Pages 53-111 Unit 3 = Pages 112-165 Unit 4 = Pages 166-214 Unit 5 = Pages 215-261