William Faulkner : An Introduction

Born in Mississippi(1897-1962) The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, and Absalom, Absalom! An author ahead of his time Human being in conflict with himself He was against any kind of inequality especially with reference to South

Faulkner and the South

Fictional region of Mississippi called Yoknapatawpha County, town of Jefferson. Views on inequality in the history of South Like Hardys Wessex and Narayens Malagudi A fictional place similar to real one is used to elaborate the place, people, culture and history

Absalom Absalom: An Introduction

Published in 1936. A White man, Sutpen, Later, Colonel sutpen comes to Americas South : Mississippi state ,Jefferson . Has a French Architect, Spanish gold, African slaves Building of sutpens Hundred Plantation of Cotton Fighting matches of Black slaves for the pleasure of sutpen Marriage to a merchants daughter : the way is paved for the establishment of a Whiteman's dynasty

Continued
Henry brings in Bon to engage his sister with him Fight with father(sutpen) renunciation of Birthright Engagements stays for four years of war. Henry Kills Bon. Marriage of sutpen with Milly and the death of sutpen Clytie , the daughter of sutpen from a slave girl burns the house killing herself and her half brother Henry The dynasty destroyed.

Biblical Story: Absalom, Absalom

Mighty king David His Son Absalom Tamar: a beautiful girl Amnon insults Tamar Absalom takes revenge by killing Amnon at a feast Revolt against David Absalom is killed

Complex Narrative Frames

Miss Rosa Coldfield maintains a bitter tone and her narrative is coloured with her harsh feelings towards sutpen Mr. Compson , with a relatively neutral stance poses him as a mysterious and adventurous figure Quentin s narrative

Further Explanation
Multiplicity of Narratives in Sound and Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom, and other Works Like Balzac He cares for the Opinion of the Reader Relativity of Truth

Perspective/Reality Coloured by Narratives just like Henry James Turn of the Screw

Themes
Racism in the Southern America against the black Legitimacy Legacy Incest Homosexuality/Homoeroticism Colonialism in America Patriarchal rule Females marginality Mans relationship with the past Ambivalence of history

Metaphor for the South

The story of sutpen is a metaphor for the south Racism and Discrimination of the Whites against Blacks as a destructive force for the South Destruction of the sutpens family stands for the destruction of the South

Reconstruction of Past
History of American South The past is reconstructed The ambivalence of the past The uncertainty of narratives Difference of perspectives

sutpens Design
Building an estate

Laving an heir of white blood

Failure of the design

Cont
Microcosm: A biography of the whole Land A reconstruction needs a complete destruction as in the case of sutpen's Dynasty characters reappear: A total world preexisting in the Writers mind

Civil War 1865

Grandfather of Faulkner was a writer and soldier Colonel William Falkner who fought for the Confederate Army during Civil War

Civil War 1865

Black Slaves and their white masters Faulkner best depicted the history of the South better than any other writer or historian

Slavery and Racism

Texas says We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race.

Continued
All white men are and of right ought to

be entitled to equal civil and political rights that the servitude of the African race is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations.

Absalom, Absalom as a Tragedy

The fate of suffering woman The tragic figure of Rosa Coldfield Death and destruction The story of the South The perspective of sutpen via Compson The socio-political Tragedy in the guise of sutpens story

Faustian Legend
sutpen with his Manor and Power wants to outreach Leaves no heir to legacy as he wanted

Gothic Sequence of Events

Mysterious arrival of sutpen The purchase of sutpen Hundred Mysterious past of sutpen sutpens Absence for four years Death of Bon at the hands of his beloved friend Subsequent deaths of some other characters

Innocence of sutpen
Where did I do wrong asks sutpen from Quentins grandfather Modern mans innocence where we do not know the forces working on us Analogous to Oedipus And Macbeths rationalism and resolution

History
Much of History is an Imaginative construction

The perspective of different narratives have differences about same things like the character of sutpen as described by Rosa and Compson

Bon, a mirror of his father

No past no parentage Phoenix like sudden appearance Mysterious Byronic

Post/Modernism and Absurdism

Retrogressive Modernism Non linear plot like Virginia Woolf

A readerly text Absurdism of Conrad and Eliot i.e. in Sound and Fury A Cosmic chaos and Cosmic Absurdity

Hindsight says

Like The Waste Land Absalom Absalom, has many voices but no official or sanctioned voice