William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner (1897-1962) (1897-1962) 福克纳福克纳

Southern Literature and Faulkner’s

Yoknapatawpha saga

Southern Literature

The South: – the Deep South: South Carolina, Georgia,

Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana

– the extended South, including also the border states such as Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas and Texas

Terms to know

Southern literature : (sometimes called the literature of the American South) is defined as American about the Southern United States or by writers from this region. The leading figures of Southern literature are Flannery O’Connor, Katherine Anne Porter ,William Faulkner etc.

Stream of consciousness: the continuous

flow of sense-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and memories in the human mind.

Multiple points of view: It refers to how characters react differently to the same person or situation.

Terms to know

II. Major Works

19 novels and 4 volumes of short stories (75), two volumes of poetry

WF’s works are regarded as the summit of Southern literature.

The Yoknapatawpha saga (“约克纳帕托法世系”小说 ) the rise and fall of southern aristocratic families: the Compsons, the Sartorises, The Sutpens, the McCaslins, the Snopeses

His Literary Achievement

Has been considered as one of America’s greatest authors in the 20th century who ranks with Hemingway.

A regionalist(local colorist)dealing with his imagery Yoknapatawpha Country.约克纳帕塔法县

Won the Nobel Prize for the Literature in 1949.

Southern renaissance Representatives:

– Ellen Glasgow, Kate Chopin: precursors to the movement

– William Faulkner– Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welt, Carson

McCullers– Tennessee Williams, Flannery O’Conner

Characteristics of southern literature

Southern literature can be defined as literature about the

South, written by authors who were raised in the South.

--- Characteristics of southern literature are:

A. The importance of family, sense of community, and religion.

B.The importance of time and place, exploration of the past, sense of human limitation (moral dilemma).

C. The use of southern voice and dialect. Most of the novels are written as a Southerner actually speaks. Many books also describe the historical importance of the southern town.

William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner

The Sound and The FuryThe Sound and The Fury (1929) 《喧嚣与骚动》– Describes the decay and downfall of an old

southern aristocratic family, symbolizing the old social order, told from four different points of view

As I Lay Dying (1930) 《我弥留之际》 Sanctuary (1931) 《圣殿》 Light in August (1932) 《八月之光》 Absalom, AbsalomAbsalom, Absalom (1936)《押沙龙！押沙龙！》

– Set in early 19th-cent. Jefferson, shows the tragic downfall of the dynastic desires of the planter Colonel Sutpen

Go Down, MosesGo Down, Moses (1942) 《去吧，摩西》

Trilogy of the Snopes family– The Hamlet (1940) 《村子》– The Town (1957) 《小镇》– The Mansion (1959)《大宅》

Short Story collection:– The Unvanquished, 《没有被征服的人》 (1938)

III. The Sound and the Fury

Major themes:

Here is “a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing.”

1. The spiritual deterioration which characterizes modern life stems from the loss of love and want of emotional response.

2. The story also tells a story of deterioration from the past to the present and the author idealizes the past.