A Companion to William Faulkner [Hardcover]

This comprehensive Companion to William Faulkner reflects the current dynamic state of Faulkner studies.

• Explores the contexts, criticism, genres and interpretations of Nobel Prize-winning writer William Faulkner, arguably the greatest American novelist
• Comprises newly-commissioned essays written by an international contributor team of leading scholars
• Guides readers through the plethora of critical approaches to Faulkner over the past few decades
• Draws upon current Faulkner scholarship, as well as critically reflecting on previous interpretations

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgments xiv

Introduction 1
Richard C. Moreland

PART I Contexts 5

1 A Difficult Economy: Faulkner and the Poetics of Plantation Labor 7
Richard Godden

2 We're Trying Hard as Hell to Free Ourselves : Southern History and Race in the Making of William Faulkner's Literary Terrain 28
Grace Elizabeth Hale and Robert Jackson

3 A Loving Gentleman and the Corncob Man: Faulkner, Gender, Sexuality, and The Reivers 46
Anne Goodwyn Jones

4 C'est Vraiment Dégueulasse : Meaning and Ending in A bout de souffle and If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem 65
Catherine Gunther Kodat

5 The Synthesis of Marx and Freud in Recent Faulkner Criticism 85
Michael Zeitlin

6 Faulkner's Lives 104
Jay Parini

PART II Questions 113

7 Refl ections on Language and Narrative 115
Owen Robinson