William Faulkner (1897-1962)

A selective list of online literary criticism and analysis for William Faulkner, favoring signed articles by known scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Web Sites

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introduction [all free]

Hamblin, Robert. "How To Read Faulkner." Professor Hamblin, who has been teaching Faulkner for 40 years, offers suggestions for reading Faulkner for those who don't like or are intimidated by Faulkner. At Oprah Winfrey's "Summer of Faulkner." Oprah selected three novels by Faulkner for her Book Club: As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, and Light in August.

"William Faulkner." A biography of Faulkner, recommended reading about Faulkner, and short discussions of "Barn Burning" and "A Rose for Emily" from well-regarded critics. From academic publisher A.B. Longman.

"I decline to accept the end of man." William Faulkner's speech on accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

Kartiganer, Donald. "Remembering Faulkner." Transcript of a 1997 PBS program on William Faulkner, with Professor Kartiganer, who is a specialist in Faulkner, and author Lee Smith. Faulkner is discussed as both an innovative modernist and as a southern regionalist who created Yoknapatawpha county.

Kinney, Arthur F. "Faulkner and Racism." "The single most indelible fact about William Faulkner's work is his persistent concentration on observing and recording the culture and country in which he was born; what is most striking now, as we look back on his legacy from our own, is the enormous courage and cost of that task," says Professor Kinney. Responses to this article are available as well. Connotations 3 (1993-94).

"Faulkner Link to Plantation Diary Discovered." A childhood friend recalled Faulkner reading this slaveholder's diary and ranting about the pro-slavery and pro-Confederacy views it contained: "Faulkner became very angry. He would curse the man and take notes and curse the man and take more notes." NY Times 10 Feb. 2010.

"Absalom, Absalom!" An electronic chronology of Absalom, Absalom! by professor Stephen Railton at U of Virginia. "Our goal is to take as much advantage as we can of the capacities of electronic technology to help first-time readers orient themselves inside the stories William Faulkner is telling in Absalom, Absalom! while preserving some aspect of the experience of reading it.".

Padgett, John B. "Yoknapatawpha County: William Faulkner on the Web." A web site on William Faulkner from U of Mississippi has some useful resources, such as an annotated summary of the major critical treatments of some works.

Faulkner pronounces "Yoknapatawpha" and explains its meaning in this youtube snippet.

"A Rose for Emily"

Curry, R. "Gender and Authorial Limitation in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily.'" Mississippi Quarterly 47, 2 (1994) [free].

Heller, Terry. "The Telltale Hair: A Critical Study of William Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" Professor Heller reviews the questions critics and readers ask about "A Rose for Emily" in clear, readable prose. Arizona Quarterly 28 (1972) [free].

Moore, Gene M. "Of Time and Its Mathematical Progression: Problems of Chronology in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" Studies in Short Fiction 29 (1992) [subscription service].

Stone, Edward. "William Faulkner." Professor Stone considers new approaches to reading "A Rose for Emily." In A Certain Morbidness: A View of American Literature [subscription service].

Stone, Edward. "Usher, Poquelin, and Miss Emily: The Progress of Southern Gothic." Georgia Review 14 (Winter 1960) [subscription service].

Stronks, James. "A Poe Source for Faulkner? 'To Helen' and 'A Rose for Emily'" [and Edgar Allan Poe]. Poe Newsletter 1, 1 (1968) [free].

Sullivan, Ruth. "The Narrator in 'A Rose for Emily.'" Journal of Narrative Technique 1, 3 (Sept. 1971) [subscription service].

Watkins, Floyd C. "The Structure of 'A Rose for Emily.'" Modern Language Notes 69, 7 (Nov. 1954 [first paragraph only].

West, Ray B. "Atmosphere and Theme in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" Perspective, 1949 [subscription service].

literary criticism

Altman, Meryl. "The Bug That Dare Not Speak Its Name: Sex, Art, Faulkner's Worst Novel, and the Critics" [on Faulkner's novel Mosquitoes]. Article was the winner of the Jim Hinkle Memorial Prize 1989-1999, Faulkner Journal [free].

Blotner, Joseph. "Writing William Faulkner's Biography." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter [free].

Dimino, Andrea. "Why Did the Snopeses Name Their Son 'Wallstreet Panic'? Depression Humor in Faulkner's The Hamlet." Studies in American Humor [free].

Dussere, Erik. "The Debts of History: Southern Honor, Affirmative Action, and Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust." Faulkner Journal 17, 1 (2001). Article was the winner of the Jim Hinkle Memorial Prize 2000-2005 [free].

Fowler, Doreen. Publisher's blurb for Faulkner and Race (UP of Mississippi 2007).

Heller, Terry. "Intruders in the Dust: The Representation of Racial Problems in Faulkner's Novel and in the MGM Film Adaptation." Coe Review 8 (1977) [free].

Kreiswirth, Martin. Publisher's blurb for William Faulkner: The Making of a Novelist. (U of Georgia P 1983).

Llewellyn, Dara. "Waves of time in Faulkner's Go Down, Moses." Llewellyn notes that "readers of William Faulkner must sort through complex chronological developments when reading his stories." Studies in Short Fiction Fall 1996 [free].

Martin, Reginald. Faulkner's Southern reflections: the black on the back of the mirror in "Ad Astra." Says Martin, "William Faulkner's black characters are considered the strongest characters in his narratives." African American Review Spring 1993 [free].

Miles, Caroline. A review of Faulkner and the Great Depression by Ted Atkinson (U of Georgia P 2006). Reviewed in the Mississippi Quarterly Winter 2005 [free].

Moore, Gene M. A review of A Conflict of Values: Alienation and Commitment in the Novels of Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner by Grazyna Branny Mississippi Quarterly [subscription service].

Peek, Charles A. "That Evening Sun(g): Blues Inscribing Black Space in White Stories." Southern Quarterly Spring 2004 [subscription service].

Shiffman, Smadar. "Romantic, radical, and ridiculous: Faulkner's hero as an oxymoron." Style, Spring 1995 [free].

Singal, Daniel J. Excerpt from William Faulkner: The Making of a Modernist (U of North Carolina P 1997) [free].

Wainwright, Michael. "Coordination Problems in the Work of William Faulkner." Papers on Language and Literature, Winter 2007 [free].

Zeitlin, Michael. "The uncanny and the opaque in Yoknapatawpha and beyond." Mississippi Quarterly, Fall 2004 [free].

teaching guides [all free]

Atsma, Helen R. "Calvinistic Visions of Time and Humanity in The Sound and the Fury." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Baker, Charles R. "A Certain Slant of Light: Teaching Light in August Through Hightower’s Epiphany." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Banerjee, Supurna. "Black vs. White and New vs. Old in Go Down, Moses." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Barloon, Jim. "A Rose for Homer? The Limitations of a Reader-Response Approach to Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" When the student-reader contends that Homer Barron is gay. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Byrne, Mary Ellen. "Town and Time: Teaching Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" Assisting students on their "first foray into Yoknapatawpha." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Byrne, Mary Ellen. "'Barn Burning': A Story from the '30s." "Barn Burning" as a story of the Great Depression, and of poor whites in the South. Contrasted to the vision of the southern agrarian poets of the same period known as the Fugatives. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Carvill, Caroline. "Narrative Complexity, Voice, and Paper Assignments." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Cass, Barbara Ann. "The Right Tools for the Job: Cash Bundren's Tool Box in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Flaum, Morna. "Elucidating Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Friesen, Faye and Charles Peek. "What's in a Name? Etymology and As I Lay Dying."Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Frisch, Mark. "Teaching One Hundred Years of Solitude with The Sound and the Fury" [and Gabriel Garcia Marquez]. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Frye, Allen. "Faulkner's Distorted Crucifix: Wood Imagery in Light in August. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Hahn, Stephen. "'Life Is Motion': Keats and Faulkner in the Classroom." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Hamblin, Robert. "Faulkner's Map of Yoknapatawpha: The End of Absalom, Absalom!" Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Hamblin, Robert W. "'Did you ever have a sister?': Salinger's Holden Caulfield and Faulkner's Quentin Compson" [and J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye]. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Hamblin, Robert W. "'A Casebook on Mankind': Faulkner’s Use of Shakespeare." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Hearn, Pamela. "Teaching Faulkner: Meaning through Metaphor." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Heyde, William A. "Tragi-Comedy and Comi-Tragedy in 'Pantaloon in Black.'" Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Holtz, Dan. "Faulkner as a Framework for Studying the Civil War." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Kirkland, Karl. "'He Could Do So Much for Me if He Just Would': Teaching Faulkner to Medical Students." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Lester, Cheryl. "Fifteen Ways of Looking at the Bundrens." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Linnemann, Amy E.C. "The Decomposing Archetypes of Thomas Sutpen and Mr. Kurtz in the Motley Flag of Modernism" [and Joseph Conrad]. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Longe, Laurel. "Lucas Beauchamp, Joe Christmas, and the Color of Humanity." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Makowsky, Veronica. A Review of MLA Volume on The Sound and the Fury. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Peek, Charles A. "'Because if there is a God What the Hell is He for?': Frenchman's Bend and Its Piety in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying." Peek asks whether religious sentiments in As I Lay Dying were hypocritical. Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Peek, Charles A. "Teaching Faulkner's Go Down Moses." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Powell, Janice A. "Changing Portraits in 'A Rose for Emily.'" Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Saur, Pamela S. "Property, Wealth, and the 'American Dream' in 'Barn Burning.'" Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Seaber, Ruth K. "The Four of the Apocalypse: Addie and Cora, Sula and Nel and the Collapse of the Mythic." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Street, Anna J. "Untimely Loss: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Vanderwerken, David. "Faulkner’s Underworld Communities in Light in August and Sanctuary." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Wannamaker, Annette. "Viewing Addie Bundren Through a Feminist Lens." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

Williams, John. "Dilsey, Shegog's Sermon, and the Meaning of Time." Teaching Faulkner Newsletter.

A Teacher's Guide to William Faulkner, ed. John Lowe. Lowe begins with an acknowledgment of the difficulties students have with Faulkner. He recommends approaching Faulkner as an interpreter of history--in the sense of the history of modernism, and of southern and American history--and exploring his portrayals of sex, social class, and especially race. From textbook publisher Heath.

Resources for teaching William Faulkner from C-Span's American Writers series.

journals & societies

"William Faulkner Society." News of interest to Faulkner scholars, links to scholarly journals that publish articles on Faulkner, conferences, and to Faulkner research centers.

"The Faulkner Journal." News of interest to Faulkner scholars. Also, currently reprints online two prize-winning articles from the journal, by Erik Dussere and Meryl Altman.

Teaching Faulkner Newsletter, published by the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State U. Some of the articles are indexed here.

library of america editions

Novels 1926–1929: Soldiers' Pay (1926); Mosquitoes (1927); Flags in the Dust (Sartoris) (1929); The Sound and the Fury (1929).

Novels 1930–1935: As I Lay Dying (1930); Sanctuary (1931); Light in August (1932); Pylon. Library of America.

Novels 1936–1940: Absalom, Absalom! (1936); The Unvanquished (1938); If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem (The Wild Palms)(1939); The Hamlet (1940). Library of America.

Novels 1942–1954: Go Down, Moses (1942); Intruder in the Dust (1948); Requiem for a Nun (1951); A Fable (1954). Library of America.

Novels 1957–1962: The Town (1957); The Mansion (1959); The Reivers: A Reminiscence (1962). Library of America.

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