1. William Faulkner
“Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.” 

2. Southern Fiction His stories are set in his native Mississippi.
Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.
“Henry James was one of the nicest old ladies I ever met.” 
Faulkner wrote about MS where he was from. His is considered a “regional” fiction, and since he won the Nobel Prize, he has been considered one of the most important American writers of the 20th Century. His stories were all about the South, but they have much greater appeal than that. The world he created can be enlarged and the characters and the setting then come to represent aspects of of the greater human experience. His novels often combine comedy with deep pathos as we will see in AILD.

3. Yoknapatawpha County
Faulkner’s novels are set in this county he created.
Modeled after Lafayette County where he lived.
City of Jefferson is Oxford, MS.
Although AILD is not listed on the map like other novels, we know the Bundrens are from a place off the map to the east/southeast. We will see their exploits as they attempt to cross the swollen Yoknapatawpha River on their journey to Jefferson. By modeling Y county on the place where he lived, Faulkner was able to take his deep understanding of his surroundings and turn it into amazingly powerful stories with world-wide appeal. Most of the novels involve characters from Jefferson and the surrounding areas – AILD is a bit different because it involves people from a neighboring county and town who are journeying to Jefferson.

4. Literary Modernism Value of individuality
Uneasiness about institutions (government, religion, anything based on tradition) and social forces that may limit or harm the individual.
Denial of any absolute Truths.
Faulkner is associated with Literary Modernism, although he had no time for any such labels. Some important aspects of Modernist thought are listed above. We see these present in AILD - the individual perspectives through the use of multiple narrators, Anse’s uneasiness about the road and the changes in society the road represents, and the denial of truth again through the multiple perspectives. Perspectivism is a philosophical outlook that denies any absolute truth, or Truth with a capital “T.” What ends up counting as “Truth” is merely the “perspective” that wins out. Modernist writers tend not to care for the big “Truths” like God, Religion, the right of the Government, etc.

5. Stream of Consciousness
Faulkner was an American pioneer of this technique.
More closely represents the mental lives of individuals.
Often lacks punctuation, contains numerous “run-on” sentences, and strings together a flurry of images and impressions.
James Joyce had already made this technique famous a few years before, but Faulkner was one of the first American writers to employ it. S of C is used to more accurately represent what individual mental life is like. We don’t experience life in an orderly and sensible fashion - our lives are strings of impressions and experiences, and we often drift into the past or look forward to the future. S o C draws attention to the fact that our mental lives are not as present and ordered as we think they are. S o C writing can be bewildering with its lack of formal punctuation and lack of orderly sentences and paragraphs. Try to pay attention to mental images and remember you are inside the mental experience of the narrator - don’t worry so much about how the writing seems to run-on.

6. S o C example
“When I used to sleep with Vardaman I had a nightmare once I thought I was awake but I couldn’t see and couldn’t feel I couldn’t feel the bed under me and I couldn’t think what I was I couldn’t think of my name I couldn’t even think I am a girl I couldn’t even think I nor even think I want to wake up nor remember what was opposite to awake so …….
Notice how the impressions from the nightmare all run together with the repetition of “I couldn’t.” This “running together” lets the reader connect with the anxiety, the chaos and the unfamiliar feeling of Dewey Dell’s nightmare. In this way, the style reinforces the content. Her nightmare was confusing and frightening, she lacked control and couldn’t do or think anything at all. The S o C techniques lets the artist reinforce this feeling with the impressions that pile up on each other uncontrollably.

7. Traditional example What if the narrator had instead said:
“One night I had a strange nightmare where I couldn’t think or feel or even remember my name.”
Stream of consciousness gets us into the head of the narrator, so we can more easily connect with what they are seeing, feeling, and experiencing.

8. Multiple Narrators 15 different perspectives
Darl, Cora, Jewel, Dewey Dell, Tull, Anse, Peabody, Vardaman, Cash, Samson, Addie, Whitfield, Armstid, Moseley, MacGowan
The story’s focus is on the death and burial of Addie Bundren
Her family must transport her body to her home county to bury her in honor of her final wishes

9. Southern Gothic
The characters in the novel are, in general, Southern, uneducated and confused.
United by same purpose – honor Addie’s last wish
What results is an anachronistic, multi-layered, stream of consciousness account of the journey from Addie’s death to Addie’s burial

10. Tips for Reading Keep notes for each narrator
For example: keep all notes on Darl’s chapters together, rather than take notes chapter by chapter
Organize the family tree/character map and characterize each narrator as you encounter them
Keep reading!
Don’t try too hard to fit this novel into the box of nicely organized and lateral novels you have previously read – it won’t.
Remember the question: How does the author (Faulkner) use literary techniques (point of view plus others) to impact the reader while conveying a central idea?

11. Questions to consider:
How would you describe the relationships among different members of the family? How do the siblings feel about each other? Anse? Addie? How is this revealed through point of view?
In what ways is this novel realistic and in what ways is it symbolic?
Why do you think Addie's chapter is placed where it is in the novel? What does it reveal about earlier chapters?
How does Faulkner control the reader’s “closeness” with the characters? Which characters are we allowed to get closer to than others? How is this accomplished?

12. Upcoming Important Dates
Thursday, April 14th – Read through page 83 Wednesday, April 19th – Read through page 176 Monday, April 24th– Have book finished.