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

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 viiiAcknowledgments xivIntroduction 1Richard C. MorelandPART I Contexts 51 A Difficult Economy: Faulkner and the Poetics of PlantationLabor 7Richard Godden2 "We're Trying Hard as Hell to Free Ourselves": SouthernHistory and Race in the Making of William Faulkner's LiteraryTerrain 28Grace Elizabeth Hale and Robert Jackson3 A Loving Gentleman and the Corncob Man: Faulkner, GenderSexuality, and The Reivers 46Anne Goodwyn Jones4 "C'est Vraiment Dégueulasse": Meaning and Ending in About de souffle and If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem 65Catherine Gunther Kodat5 The Synthesis of Marx and Freud in Recent Faulkner Criticism85Michael Zeitlin6 Faulkner's Lives 104Jay PariniPART II Questions 1137 Refl ections on Language and Narrative 115Owen Robinson8 Race as Fact and Fiction in William Faulkner 133Barbara Ladd9 "Why Are You So Black?" Faulkner's Whiteface MinstrelsPrimitivism, and Perversion 148John N. Duvall10 Shifting Sands: The Myth of Class Mobility 165Julia Leyda11 Faulkner's Families 180Arthur F. Kinney12 Changing the Subject of Place in Faulkner 202Cheryl Lester13 The State 220Ted Atkinson14 Violence in Faulkner's Major Novels 236Lothar Hönnighausen15 An Impossible Resignation: William Faulkner's Post-ColonialImagination 252Sean Latham16 Religion: Desire and Ideology 269Leigh Anne Duck17 Cinematic Fascination in Light in August 284Peter Lurie18 Faulkner's Brazen Yoke: Pop Art, Modernism, and the Myth ofthe Great Divide 301Vincent Allan KingPART III Genres and Forms 31919 Faulkner's Genre Experiments 321Thomas L. McHaney20 "Make It New": Faulkner and Modernism 342Philip Weinstein21 Faulkner's Versions of Pastoral, Gothic, and the Sublime359Susan V. Donaldson22 Faulkner, Trauma, and the Uses of Crime Fiction 373Greg Forter23 William Faulkner's Short Stories 394Hans H. Skei24 Faulkner's Non-Fiction 410Noel Polk25 Faulkner's Texts 420Noel PolkPART IV Sample Readings 42726 "By It I Would Stand or Fall": Life and Death in As I LayDying 429Donald M. Kartiganer27 Faulkner and the Southern Arts of Mystifi cation in AbsalomAbsalom! 445John Carlos Rowe28 "The Cradle of Your Nativity": Codes of Class Culture andSouthern Desire in Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy 459Evelyn Jaffe SchreiberPART V After Faulkner 47729 "He Doth Bestride the Narrow World Like a Colossus":Faulkner's Critical Reception 479Timothy P. Caron30 Faulkner, Latin America, and the Caribbean: Infl uencePolitics, and Academic Disciplines 499Deborah Cohn31 Faulkner's Continuance 519Patrick O'DonnellIndex 528