William Faulkner Seeing Through the South [Hardcover]

This succinct, yet comprehensive account of William Faulkner's literary career, novels, and key short stories offers an imaginative topography of his efforts to reckon with his Southern past, to acknowledge its modernization, and to develop his own modernist method. Drawing on various critical approaches, it provides a coherent interpretation of the author's career, emphasizing Faulkner's receptivity to change, not just his critical resistance to it. Now available in paperback, William Faulkner: Seeing Through the South places Faulkner's art in context while concentrating on textual detail, technique, and thematic preoccupations across his career.List of illustrations vi

Preface vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Seeing Through the South: Faulkner and the Life Work of Writing 1

1 An Artist Never Quite at Home: Faulkner's Apprehension of Modern Life 19

2 That Evening Son Go Down: The Plantation South at Twilight 77

3 Come Up: From Red Necks to Riches 124

4 The Planting of Men: The South and New World Colonialism 172

5 Seeing a South Beyond Yoknapatawpha 225

Notes 288

Bibliography 296

Index 302

It is largely due to this diversity of approaches and Matthews' ability to accessibly convey his formidable learning that his book achieves its dual aims: introducing Faulkner to first-timers while modifying an established critical tradition for the sake of a larger reading audience . . . seeing Through the South is a bold, many-sided, and at times surprising book-qualities that are not often combined in the typical introductory volume and are bolstered by Matthews' enthusiasm for his subject and his subtle engagement with Faulkner's daunting critical heritage. (Notes and Queries, 1 June 2011)

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