Considered by many to be the most influential US novelist the world has known, William Faulkner's roots and his writing are planted in a single obscure county in the Deep South. A foremost international modernist, Faulkner's subjects and characters, ironically, are more readily associated with the history and sociology of the most backward state in the Union. He experimented endlessly with narrative structure, developing an unorthodox writing style. Yet his main goal was to reveal the truth of "the human heart in conflict with itself," ultimately defining human nature through the lens of his own Southern experience.

This comprehensive account of Faulkner's literary career features an exploration of his novels and key short stories, includingThe Sound and the Fury,As I Lay Dying,Absalom,Absalom!, and many more. Drawing on psychoanalytic, post-structuralist, feminist, and post-colonial theory, it offers an imaginative topography of Faulkner's efforts to reckon with his Southern past, to acknowledge its modernization, and to develop his own modernist method.

John T. Matthews is Professor of English at Boston University. Author ofThe Play of Faulkners Language (1982) andThe Sound and the Fury: Faulkner and the Lost Cause (1991), Matthews has also written numerous articles on Faulkner. He was the 2006 recipient of Boston University Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching.

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