William Faulkner Research Paper
Since the inception of time, man has been confronted with the intriguing, yet confidential debate about slavery and racial discrimination against minorities. Nobel prize winner and literary merit William Faulkner, was a preeminent American author who examined and presented such archetype through his southern style genre and works, A Rose for Emily, The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom. Connected to his work, William Faulkner is heralded today to be one of the greatest southern-interpreted writers in American history. His brilliant description of the racial battle during the 19th century is craftily persuasive and exhaustively presented through disintegration of southern aristocracy, Fictitious setting, and William Faulkner throughout
the decades has been highly acknowledged for his writing and work which offer insight on the despicable unqualified truth of the South. In his novel Absalom, Absalom, Faulkner delves back in time to rediscover the life of the main character Sutpen, an enslaved African American. Faulkner, in the novel, seemingly and effectively explores the history of the South when slavery was thriving before the Civil War. The simultaneous discovery of the nature of Sutpen’s eventual fall and the demise of the antebellum South may not be simply fortuitous. Instead, Faulkner’s exploration of the history of Sutpen’s fall and the tragedy of the South metaphorically contributes to the reflection of both Sutpen’s and the South’s histories. Alluding to the discovery of their shared tragic flaw, an ignorance of racial prejudice. Portraying such a compelling metaphor, Faulkner was frequently asked about the novel, Absalom, Absalom, by many critics. In response, Faulkner craftily responded with a connection to the prehistoric being of America where stating that, “our republic had been born out of a dream. It had been founded to guarantee to every citizen freedom from oppression…”(Stable 1). In addition to portraying the life of an enslaved African American in his acclaimed novel, Faulkner often also intertwined pieces of personal perspective experience, and background upon race. Born in New Albany, Mississippi “Faulkner perceived race relations through the prism of his Mississippi upbringing”( ). Exclaimed by many, “Faulkner’s works explored the concept of slavery as the nation's original sin” (Ole Miss 1). Indubitably throughout his myriad of novels, “Absalom Absalom was the most serious attempt by any white writer to confront the problem of race in America.”( ) as stated by writer John Jeremiah Sullivan. Portraying such profound and bold , Faulkner has also been credited as one of three founding “fathers” of the Southern gothic literary movement. Also called “the Southern Renaissance” (Southern 1), it “has been declared by critics as having begun in 1929, the year that saw the publication of major works by… William Faulkner”(Southern 1). Faulkner, an author who often specifically expressed “the grotesque, loads of decay and disintegration”(Shmoop 1) which revolved around such movement, typically presented work “based on ‘the ghost of a dead civilization,” and “the diabolically vital and haunting specter of slavery recorded and recounted in the written word of the slave narrative and the slave novel”(Sullivan 1).
the decades has been highly acknowledged for his writing and work which offer insight on the despicable unqualified truth of the South. In his novel Absalom, Absalom, Faulkner delves back in time to rediscover the life of the main character Sutpen, an enslaved African American. Faulkner, in the novel, seemingly and effectively explores the history of the South when slavery was thriving before the Civil War. The simultaneous discovery of the nature of Sutpen’s eventual fall and the demise of the antebellum South may not be simply fortuitous. Instead, Faulkner’s exploration of the history of Sutpen’s fall and the tragedy of the South metaphorically contributes to the reflection of both Sutpen’s and the South’s histories. Alluding to the discovery of their shared tragic flaw, an ignorance of racial prejudice. Portraying such a compelling metaphor, Faulkner was frequently asked about the novel, Absalom, Absalom, by many critics. In response, Faulkner craftily responded with a connection to the prehistoric being of America where stating that, “our republic had been born out of a dream. It had been founded to guarantee to every citizen freedom from oppression…”(Stable 1). In addition to portraying the life of an enslaved African American in his acclaimed novel, Faulkner often also intertwined pieces of personal perspective experience, and background upon race. Born in New Albany, Mississippi “Faulkner perceived race relations through the prism of his Mississippi upbringing”( ). Exclaimed by many, “Faulkner’s works explored the concept of slavery as the nation's original sin” (Ole Miss 1). Indubitably throughout his myriad of novels, “Absalom Absalom was the most serious attempt by any white writer to confront the problem of race in America.”( ) as stated by writer John Jeremiah Sullivan. Portraying such profound and bold , Faulkner has also been credited as one of three founding “fathers” of the Southern gothic literary movement. Also called “the Southern Renaissance” (Southern 1), it “has been declared by critics as having begun in 1929, the year that saw the publication of major works by… William Faulkner”(Southern 1). Faulkner, an author who often specifically expressed “the grotesque, loads of decay and disintegration”(Shmoop 1) which revolved around such movement, typically presented work “based on ‘the ghost of a dead civilization,” and “the diabolically vital and haunting specter of slavery recorded and recounted in the written word of the slave narrative and the slave novel”(Sullivan 1).