Critiques of Faulkner’s Sound and Fury Essay - 870 Words

Critiques of Faulkner’s Sound and Fury After reading through a large chunk of criticism, it seems clear to me how David Minter, editor of our edition, hopes to direct the readers’ attentions. I was rather dumbstruck by the number of essays included in the criticism of this edition that felt compelled to discuss Faulkner and the writing of The Sound and the Fury seemingly more than to discuss the text itself. Upon going back over the essay, I realized that Minter’s own contribution, â€Å"Faulkner, Childhood, and the Making of The Sound and the Fury,† is a prime example of such â€Å"criticism of the text† that focuses on the author, his creation of the text as a process, and the author’s self-professed opinions of the text. I have a number of†¦show more content†¦Unfortunately, Andre Bleikasten’s â€Å"The Quest for Eurydice† devotes a sizeable portion of its time to discussing these very issues I grew weary of. But once you get past this, I found Bleikastenâ€℠¢s essay rather interesting. Admittedly, the essay struck me mostly because it discusses a number of ideas and theoretical approaches I am currently entrenched in for another seminar that focuses on hauntings and phenomenality. On page 422, he says â€Å"these curious children, confronted with the mysteries of sex and death, are the fictive delegates of that supreme voyeur who is none other than the novelist. He too wants to see and know. Just as we, his readers, do.† In effect, Bleikasten creates a chain of voyeurism, for as the Compson sons look up and watch their sister in the tree, Faulkner watches the sons, and the reader watches along with Faulkner, so that we are watching the watched watcher. Then Bleikasten moves on to a discussion of Caddy, whom he calls â€Å"a blank counter, an empty signifier, a name in itself devoid of meaning and thus apt to receive any meaning† (423). In this manner, Faulkner designifies the signifier, which becomes nothing more than letters on a page. Yet ironically, for Benjy,Show MoreRelated Analysis of Memory and Time in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury932 Words   |  4 PagesSartre and Brooks’ Literary Critiques: Analysis of Memory and Time in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury â€Å"History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time.† Cicero presaged the study of historical memory and conceptions of time, which assumes that what and how we remember molds our past into something more than a chronological succession of events. Ever more appreciative of the subjectivity of recollection, we grasp that without memory, time passes away as little more than sterileRead MoreSummary Of The Sound And The Fury And Absalom1756 Words   |  8 PagesIn Faulkner’s works, both the land and the people of the South struggle under the monumental weight of myth and history. In fact, certain calamity looms over his fictional region of Yoknahpatwah, a microcosm of the postbellum South. Themes of the Southern consciousness, such as inescapable past and present, inherited guilt, and emotional and psychological stagnation pervade this fictional region. In The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Absalom, Absalom! (1936), Faulkner’s portrayal of two Southern aristocraticRead MoreWilliam Faulkners Major Works and Themes938 Words   |  4 PagesMajor Works And Themes Faulkner’s works consisted of many dark touchy topics such as war, racism, mental illness and suicide in all of books, short stories, William Faulkner wrote about almost every part of life, from something that could be absurd at his time, to something real like racism in the American South. Throughout his life, Faulkner was kind of a rebel, notorious for his confidence, drinking, and he would often make up stories about himself. Faulkner wrote from experience and as a personRead More William Faulkners Use of Shakespeare Essay5388 Words   |  22 PagesWilliam Faulkners Use of Shakespeare Throughout his career William Faulkner acknowledged the influence of many writers upon his work--Twain, Dreiser, Anderson, Keats, Dickens, Conrad, Balzac, Bergson, and Cervantes, to name only a few--but the one writer that he consistently mentioned as a constant and continuing influence was William Shakespeare. Though Faulkner’s claim as a fledgling writer in 1921 that â€Å"[he] could write a play like Hamlet if [he] wanted to† (FAB 330) may be dismissed asRead MoreEdgar Allan Poes Influence on Literature1191 Words   |  5 Pagesthe detective and the science fiction genre. Throughout his life, Poe read, reviewed, and critiqued many books for various magazines and papers. Poe did not hesitate to attack what he deemed inferior. â€Å"Is purely too imbecile to merit an extended critique,† he once wrote of a novel. Because of his readiness to attack what he believed to be unworthy, Poe helped set high standards for American literature (Meltzer 64). Poe had an influence on both American and non-American writers, like William FaulknerRead MoreMidnights Children Essay2493 Words   |  10 Pagesdemonstrate the way each event is the result of everything that went before. As intended we come to see the characters as the product not of any forward movement, but as a product of what has already come. That which Jean Paul Sartre says of Faulkners The Sound and the Fury is also true of Saleems story: the past takes on a sort of super-reality (267), for it is here that the answers to the present lay. Saleem, like Faulkner, would have us believe that the characters are explicable only in terms of whatRead MoreEudora Welty a Worn Path12166 Words   |  49 Pagesis meant to represent blacks as a whole, what are we to make of her naivete and helplessness? If her great age is in one respect an asset, does it not also suggest that blacks are changeless and eternal? The final words in William Faulkners The Sound and the Fury, They endure, is his summary assessment of the state of blacks in the South. Certainly, he has respect for their endurance, but is it not also patronizing to confer only this compliment upon an entire race of people? Weltys criticsRead MoreEudora Welty a Worn Path12173 Words   |  49 Pagesis meant to represent blacks as a whole, what are we to make of her naivete and helplessness? If her great age is in one respect an asset, does it not also suggest that blacks are changeless and eternal? The final words in William Faulkners The Sound and the Fury, They endure, is his summary assessment of the state of blacks in the South. Certainly, he has respect for their endurance, but is it not also patronizing to confer only this compliment upon an entire race of people? Weltys critics