faulkner narrative styles

7/25/2019 FAULKNER Narrative Styles

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Faulkner's Narrative StylesAuthor(s): J. E. BunselmeyerSource: American Literature, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Nov., 1981), pp. 424-442Published by: Duke University Press

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Faulkner'sNarrative

tyles

J.

E. BUNSELMEYER

Universityof Massachusetts

T HE VISION

at theheart

f Faulkner'sworks s of life s

a

process

I

of accretion, f

overwhelming

onnectedness. his vision s

embodiedn

the

yntactictyle hat

haracterizes

aulkner's

arration

and marks hrase hythms

s "Faulknerian."Works s differents

The

Hamlet

and

Light

n

August hare syntactictyle hat

quates

events nd

ideas, past and

present, ypiling up

clauses; the style

transformsn individual xperience y linking t to everything

around it.

Stylisticnalysis dentifies

he

dominantfeatures f

Faulkner's haracteristic

tyle s well as thevariations

n

style

hat

createdifferencesn tone,

ranging

from comedyto thoughtful

contemplation.pecifically,

peech cttheory nd

transformational

analysis f

grammatical

atterns ield nsights

nto

the

ways by

whichnarrative

yntax

reates one nd

point

fview.

The

communication

f point

f

view

s, perhaps,

hebasic "trans-

action"of literaryanguage.' n literarynd ordinary arratives,

events re

related rom

n

evaluativeiewpointfor

example,

n

the

tellable ales

mposed pon

dinner

uests).

n Towarda

Speech

Act

Theory f

Literary

iscourse,

ratt onsiders his valuative

ttitude

as inherentn "the

iterarypeech

ituation" ecausethe author

r

speaker

s "not

only

reporting

ut also

verbally

isplaying

state f

affairs,

nviting

is

addressee(s)

to

join

him

in

contemplatingt,

evaluating t,

and

responding

o it. His

point

s

to

produce

n

his

hearers otonlybelief utalso an imaginativendaffectivenvolve-

ment

n

the tate f

affairs

e

is

presenting

nd

an

evaluative tance

toward

t."2 n

Faulkner's

ales, he

evaluative tancevariesfrom

comic detachment o

empathy

with

a

character's

ontemplation;

1

John Searle,

Speech

Acts: An

Essay

in the

Philosophy

f

Language (Cambridge,

Eng.: Cambridge

niv. Press, 969), p. I7, discusses

peech

as an active

transaction.

2

MaryLouise

Pratt, oward a SpeechAct Theory

f

Literary iscourse Bloomington:

Indiana Univ. Press,

977),

p. I36.

American Literature,

Volume

53,

Number 3, November

98I.

Copyright

I98I

by

Duke

Universityress.








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

425

these

ifferencesn

tone nd

point f

view

recreated

y

different

syntactic

tyles.

Thestylisticeatureshatmark he ontemplativeone ll inher-

ently

nvolvevaluation

ecause

hey resent

yntactic

elationships.

Narration

iffersrom he

mere

ecounting

f

events-in

ntent

nd

in

style-as

abovhas

pointed

ut.He

found hat

when vents

ere

merely

eported,

heywere

hrasedn

the

imple

ast

ense;

when

evaluation as

builtnto

he

narration,

t

was

throughdepartures

from asic

narrative

yntax,"

hrough

yntactic

ransformationshat

"suspendhe

ction,"

ntroduce

valuation,nd

transform

xperience

byframingt na point fview.3hus, he yntactictylen which

a

tale s

told

alters he

way

events

nd

charactersre

evaluated.

Faulkner's

ontemplative

tyle,

hich

raws

eadersnto he

rocess

of

thoughtnd

evaluation,s marked

y

many f the

syntactic

features

oted y

Labov

n

the

valuative

ectionsf

natural arra-

tives,

iterature's

losest

in.The

foregrounded

eatures

hat

luster

in

Faulkner's

ontemplative

assagesre:

negatives,

hich

efine

hat s

bywhat

s

not nd

nvite

udgement

f

both hroughomparison,rovidingnLabov'swords,a way fevaluat-

ing

events

y

placing hem

gainst he

background

f other

vents

which

might

ave

happened,ut

which

idnot"

pp.

80-8I);

appositives,

which re

so

lengthynd

so

numerous

hat he

original

noun s

lost

ight

f

as

it

is

amplified

nd absorbed

y

all

the

hings

t

stands or nd

an

be

equated

ith;

double

modifiers

hichbring

n a wider

ange f

imultaneousvents"

(Labov,

p.

388),

inviting

n

evaluation f

the

relationship

etween

attributes;

comparisons

hat xplicitlyvaluate hatsbywhat t s like;

or-clauses

hat

mbed he

consideration

f

alternative

orms f

action

or

perceptionnd

nvite

valuation

hrough

uxtaposition.

These

yntacticendencies

ave n

common "mode

f

ordering"

experience;

n

act

s

amplified,

ften

oubled

r

tripled,hrough

comparisons,egative

omparisons,r-clauses,oubled

modifiers,

and

appositives.4n

Faulkner's arrationf

contemplation

hese

stylistic

eaturesluster

ogether,

orming

oregrounded

atterns

3

William

Labov,

"The

Transformation

f Experience

n

Narrative

yntax,"

anguage

and the nner

City

Philadelphia:Univ.

of

Pennsylvania

ress,972),

pp.

37I-73 and

388.

4

Richard

Ohmann

n Shaw: The

Style nd the

Man

(Middletown, onn.:

Wesleyan

Univ. Press,

962)

argues

that "We

order

xperience s we

order

anguage...."








426

American

iterature

that bsorb

he

eadern

the

processf

thoughtnd

engage

im

n

an

evaluative

ointf

view.

Faulkner'somedys free fthese tylisticeatures.he comic

passagesre

markedy

very

ifferentyntactic

tyle hat

oesnot

suspend

he

ction, ut

rather

ushest onward

y

piling p

indi-

vidual

vents.

tacking

eparate

ctions

nto

coordinate

yntactic

structures

liminates

he

evaluation

nherentn

subordination.

n

Faulkner's

omic

assages,

ctionsre

ccumulated,ne

t

a

time,s

the

entence

rows o

the

right;

he

right-branching

ernels

move

from

ne

action

othe

next

o

rapidlyhat

heres no

pausefor

evaluationr contemplation.his syntactictyle reates more

distanced

omic

erspective

nthe

narrated

vents.

he

viewpoints

of

comedy

nd

contemplation

iffer;

reud

even

thought

hat

contemplation

nterfered

ith he

omic

ffect.5

n

Faulkner's

rose,

this

nterferences

quite

iteral t

the

evel

f

syntax,or

his

con-

templative

tyle

reaks

p the

low f

action y

embedding

valua-

tion.

His

right-branching

omic tyle

peeds he

flow

f

action; y

heaping p

deeds, he

style

minimizesach

event

nd

creates

distancedttitudeoward he ction. hese ontrastingatternsf

syntactic

xpansion

reatehe

differing

ones f

comedy

nd con-

templation;he

ualityhe

wo

tyles

hare

s

the

Faulknerian"

ense

of

rowded

ccumulation.

Differences

n

the

one nd

styles

f

comedy

nd

contemplation

are

nicely

llustrated

ythe

pening

assagesf

the

wo

ections

f

"Was."6 hese

passageslso

llustratehat

entral

o both

tyles

s

a

kind f yntacticccretionhatuits thematiciew f ife scom-

posed f

nterconnected

ayers f

relationships

etween

imes

nd

people.

he

first

ection

resents

he

ontemplative

ntroduction

o

Isaac and

to

thematic

erspectives

n

the

past nd

possession.

appositive

Isaac

McCaslin,Uncle

ke,'

ast

eventy

nd

doubling

nearer

ighty

han eever

orroborated

nymore,

appositives

a

widower

ow

and

uncle

o

half

county

nd

father

5

Sigmund

reud, Jokes

nd

the

Comic,"

trans.

James

trachey,

n

Comedy:

Meaning

and

Form, ed.

RobertW. Corrigan

San

Francisco:Chandler,

965),

p.

26I.

6

William

Faulkner, Was," in Go

Down,

Moses

(New

York:

ModernLibrary,

940),

PP. 3-4-








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

427

negative

to no one.

negative

this

was

not

omething

articipated

n

or

or-clause/neg. even eenbyhimself,utbyhis elder ousin,

appositives

McCaslinEdmonds, randson

f saac's

father's

sister nd so descended

y

thedistaff,etnot-

negative

withstandinghe

nheritor,

nd n histime

he

appositive

bequestor,

f thatwhich ome

had thought hen

nd

triple

dj.

some

till

hought

houldhavebeen

saac's since

clauses

hiswas

thename n which

he itle

o the and

had

first eengranted

rom

he ndianpatent

and which ome

of thedescendants

fhis father's

negative slaves till ore nthe and.But saacwasnot

appositives

one of

these

-a widower hese wenty ears,

ho

negative

in

all

his

ife

had

owned

but

one

object

more

doubling

thanhe couldwear

nd carryn his

pockets

nd

hishands t one time, nd thiswas

thenarrow

iron ot nd the

tained ean

mattress hich

he

used camping

n thewoods

for eer nd

bearor

or-clauses

for

ishing

r

simply

ecausehe loved

he

woods;

negatives

who

owned

no

property

nd

never

esired

o

since

neg./comparisonhe arthwasnoman'sbut llmen's, s light nd

double dj. cl. air and

weather

were; who ived till

n the

triple

dj.

cheap

frame

ungalow

n

Jefferson

hichhiswife's

clauses

father

ave

them n

their

marriage

nd

which

his

wife

had

willed o him t herdeath

nd

which

appositive

he

had

pretended

o

accept, cquiesce o,

o

humor

negatives

her,

ase her

going

butwhichwas not

his,

will

or

or-phrases

not,

hancery

ying

wishesmortmain

ossession

r

appositives whatever,imselfmerely oldingt forhiswife's

sister nd her hildren

ho had lived n

t

with

doubling

him

ince

his wife's

eath,

olding imself

comparison

welcome o ive

n one room f t as

he had

during

or-clauses

his wife's ime r she during er ime

r the

sister-in-lawnd

her hildren uring

herest

f

his

and

after.

neg./or-phrase

not

omething

e had participated

n

or even

appositive

rememberedxcept rom

hehearing, he istening

come o himthrough ndfrom is cousinMcCaslin

doubling

born

n

850

and sixteen ears

is enior nd

hence,

his

own

father

eingnear

eventy

hen saac, n

appositive

only

hild,

was born, ather

isbrotherhan








428 American

Literature

comparisons

cousin,nd atherhisfather

han

ither,

ut f

appositive the ldtime,

he lddays.

The entire

astparagraph

s an appositiveo the preceding

ne;

withinach

paragraphhe

numerousppositivesontinually

ualify

and equate,eparatingubject

nd verb ntil ften he

onnection

between

he

ubject

ndthe ction f

the erb s lost

ight

f. n

the

firstaragraph,

heres noverb,

or heresno meaningful

ction or

Isaac to make except o refuse

o act). Appositives

avethe yntactic

effect f deleting

gentspresentn the

deep structure

nd thus

diminishing

ctors

and

events

n

the surface

tyle.

n the

deep

structure:Isaac was) "past seventy"; Isaac was) "a widower";

(Isaac was) "uncle to

half

a

county"; Isaac

was)

"father

o

no

one." McCaslin

was) "grandsonf saac's

father'sister"; McCaslin

was) "descended

y the distaff";

McCaslinwas) "the

nheritor";

(McCaslin

was)

"the

bequestor."

n the surfacematrix, nly

eight

lines

nto

hepassage,

oth saac

and

McCaslin

re transformednto

all the other

nouns theirnames can be

equated

with

(widower,

uncle,grandson,

escendant),

which

all

imply

heir elationship

o

others. he act of appositionecreasesndividuationnd emphasizes

relationships;

he appositivesmove the surface

tyle ven

further

into he

realm f thepassive

nd awayfrom

irect, ctive tatements

such as "McCaslin bequeathed." n

Faulkner's surfacesyntax,

McCaslin's

action of bequeathings transformed

nto McCaslin's

identitys

inheritornd bequestor; he syntactic

ppositionbsorbs

McCaslin'spotential or

ndividual

ction nto

network f

equated

relationships.he over-all

tructuref the

passagehas the same

effect: he ndividual ections ave no individual xistence,or ach

depends

for

meaningupon its relationship

o what comes

before

and after. he last paragraph

s

an

appositive

o

the

precedingne,

and the secondparagraph

egins

with

pronoun

hat

has

no

ante-

cedent: thiswas

not

something."

uch

pronouns

sually

efer

ack

to

something,

ut

here the

only

referents

Isaac's

appositional

identity.

uch syntactictructuresllow

for nconclusive aragraph

structure

nd

punctuation,

hich reinforce he thematic

oint

of

view hat hererenoclear eginningsrendingsoevents. hus, he

vast

number f

appositives

stablishes

hrough tyle,

wo

themes:

that

here re

few

solated ctions

r actors

n

life's egends,nd that

legends row,

bit at

a

time,

ntil

hey

nundate

onsciousness.








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

429

The

overwhelming

aze

of

relationships

s

reinforced

y

other

elementsf

tyle-by umerous

r-phrases

nd

adjective

lauses nd

bytheredefinitionfthings ytheir pposites,hrough egation.

Likethe

ppositives,

he

djectivelauses

re kind f

doubling,

or

they eepgiving

urther

nformation

bout he

preceding

lause:

"thatwhichomehad thought

hen nd some

till houghthould

havebeen

saac's ince

hiswasthename

n which

hetitle

o

the

landhad

firsteen

ranted

rom he ndian

atent

nd which ome

of

the

descendants

fhis

father's

laves till

ore n

the and."

saac

and hishome

requalified y

many uch

lauses: who

n

all his

life,"who wned oproperty,"who ived till,"which iswife's

father

adgiven,"

which is

wife adwilled,"andwhich e

had

pretendedo

ccept."

he

clauses

ontinually

edefine

hat asgone

beforen

ight

fthe

ast.

he

or-constructionslso

expand escrip-

tion

n

an

evaluativeirection:

which

eused

amping

n the

woods

fordeer

nd

bearor

forfishingr simply

ecause

e lovedthe

woods"; holding imself elcome o

ive

n

one

room

f

t

as he

had

during

is

wife's ime

r he

during

er

ime rthe ister-in-law

andher hildrenuring he est f hisand after." ike the pposi-

tives,

his

yntactic

onstructioneadsfurther

wayfrom he nitial

startingoint o all the

hingshatmight e

substituted

or

t,

nd

thus

resents

he

point

fview

hat

ctions

nd

people

an

and do

replace

ach

ther. he

process

f

defininghings

y ther,

urround-

ing things

s extended

y Faulkner'sse of

negatives

o

identify.

Isaac"owned o

propertynd

never esired o since he arth

was

no

man's." saac's

repeated elationshipo his

house s thathe

will

notown t;the mportanthingbouthisrelationshipo the tory

he

tells s that

e doesnot wn teither

ince e did

notparticipate

in

t.

Definitionfrealityr

relationshipsy

what hey renotpulls

into he

reader's

onsciousnesswice

s many hings t once: not

ust

Isaac

who

owns

no

land,

but thosewho thinkhe

should,

nd

those

whodo

not;

not

ust

McCaslin wned

he

and nd

participated

n

the

annual

race,

but

also

Isaac who

refuses

wnership

nd

who

providesnarrativerame

or

story

boutmenwho

would

ossess

andowneachother. hisredefinitionynegation,ikethe trings

of

djective

lauses,

tretches

he

eader'sonsciousness

y he

yntax,

which

mbeds

ll

the

dded

detailsnto

hemiddle f the

entence,

between

ubject

nd

verb-if

the

process

f

apposition as not








430

American

Literature

eliminatedhe

ubjectnd verb

ltogether.

he

heavy mbedding

reaches he imits

f

what

he

mind an contain nd makes

he

readereel,hroughyntax,henumbingense f world nwhich

numerousonnections

nd

nterrelationships

re

at

least s

real

as

action.

In

contrastothe

ontemplativeone

hat

pens he irstection

f

"Was," he

econdection

eginswith

he omic

reationf

action.

The

tyle

f

he

arration

hifts

ramatically:

2

When

he

and

UncleBuckranback

o thehouse

rom

iscoveringhat

Tommy's

url

had

run

again, hey

heardUncle

Buddy

ursing

nd

bellowingn

the

kitchen,hen

thefox

nd

and

dogs cameout of the

kitchen

nd

crossed hehall nto

he

dogs'room nd

they eard hem

run

hrough

he

dogs'room nto

his

nd

UncleBuck's

oom,

hen

they

saw them

ross

hehall

gain ntoUncle

Buddy's

oom

nd

heard

hem

run

through

ncle

Buddy's

oom

nto

hekitchen

gain

nd

this

time

it sounded

ike

the

whole

kitchen

himney

ad come

down

nd

Uncle

Buddy ellowingike steamboatlowing

nd this ime

the ox

nd

the

dogs

nd

five r

six

ticks

f

firewood

ll

came

utofthe

kitchen

ogether

withUncle

Buddy n the

middle fthem

itting

teverything

n sight

with

nother

tick.

t was

good ace.

The

syntax

reates

he

hythms

hich

move he eader

hroughhe

bizarreace

round he

house; t also

createshe

point f

view hat

the

race

nd the

haracters

nvolvedn it are

bizarre.

he lengthy

sentence

s clear

because he

kindof

transformation

mployedo

joinelementss right-branching.s thereadermoves hroughhe

sentence

ach

clause

follows,

n

time

nd

logic,

whatever

receded

it:

"Whenhe

and

UncleBuckranback

.

. .

they

eard

Uncle

Buddy

cursing. .

.

then the fox and

the dogs

came out .

. . and they

heard

themrun

.

. . then

they

aw them

crossthe hall."

The

percep-

tionof

this

eries fseparate,

ast

ctions s dueto the

syntax, hich

grows toward

the

right,

ather han

embedding

ppositives nd

adjective

lauses between

ubjects nd

verbs.

The few

participial

phrases ass unnoticed n thegeneralforegroundingf theright-

branching yntactictyle.

he

separate

ctions re

equated

by

the

separate ndependent

lauses

of

nearlyequal length.

The

right-

branching

chieves

rhythmicower

uitable

o

a

race

nd

s

appro-








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

43I

priatelyroken y

he

ronic,taccato

eneralization:

It

was

a

good

race."

Such

variation

n

phrase

hythmocuses

ttention

n

the

shortentence,hich srepeatedttheveryndof the tory,s a

kind

frefrain,

pplyingatirically

ot

only

o

the

bumbling

unt

of thefox

nd

dogsbut lso

to the

qually

umblingemi-annual

huntsf

Buck

nd

Buddy or

url

nd

of

Sophonisba

or husband.

The

piling

up of

separate

ctions,

hrough

ight-branching

nde-

pendent

lauses,

reates

galloping

hythm

hat

reduces ach

individual

eedto blurred

nsignificance.

The

differencen

tone

between

hefirst

nd second

ections

f

"Was"-between hecontemplativentroductionnd thecomic

tale-is

due

to the

difference

etweenhe

valuative

mbeddingf

appositives,

egatives,

nd

adjective

lauses nd

the

accretionf

quick,

ight-branching

ctions.

et

both

yntax

atterns

hare

he

"Faulknerian"

uality f

accumulating

hings

f equal

weight:

neither

yntaxattern

rants

rammaticalriority

o

certainndi-

vidual

ctionsver

thers.

n

action r

contemplationhe haracters'

and

readers'

minds

must ort

hroughn

accumulationf

related,

ratherquatedventsorignificance.

The

sense

f

connectednessf

all

actions,ast nd

present,

hich

is

conveyedythe

yntactictyles,

s also

expressed

ythe

ircular,

repetitivetructure

f

"Was."The

hunt sa

recurrent

itual

nacted

toconfirm

social

ode hat s

outdated;he

torysended

s it

was

begun. ust

s the

yntaxarallels

nd

equates

vents,o does

the

patterning

f the

parallel

unts: uck's

orTurl

and

Sophonisba's

for husband-both

uck nd

Turl

head or he

woods. he

hunter

and hunted refurtherquatedby thesimilarityf theanimal

metaphorshat

express

he

dehumanization

nd

entrapment

f

both-for

xample,

hen

Uncle

Buck's

gnarled

eck hrust

orward

like

cooter's"s he

began

o

flush,"

circle,"nd

bay"

url

p.

8).

Their

ntrapmenty odes

rom he

ast

s

further

uggestedy

he

settings:

uck nd

Buddy

ave

given

ver

he

unfinished

ig

house

to the

numerous

laves

hey retend

opossess

nd

havenoreal

use

for;

ophonisba

retends

o

dignityy

nsisting

hat

thers

all

the

ramshacklelantation arwick:when heywouldn'tall t War-

wick,

he

wouldn'tven eem o

know

what

hey

ere

alking

bout

and

twould ound

s if sheand Mr.

Hubert wned

wo

eparate

plantations

overing

he

same

rea of

ground,

ne on

top

of the








432

American

Literature

other"p. 9).

A

similar

iscrepancy

xists

etween

he

names

fthe

characters

nd

their

eality.

uck nd

Buddy

schew

heir nach-

ronisticirth ames, heophilusndAmodeus; ophonisbaries

tolive

up

to

hers nd fails.

ommy's

url s

named,

ike a

race

horse,s his

mother's

ssue;

his

bsence

f sir-names the

emantic

symbol

f his

enslavement.

e

proves wice

year

hat

his

own

enslavement

lso

nslaves

hose

who

pretendoown

nd

namehim.

In the

frame

tory

saac

rejects

retensionst

ownership,hich

others

resume

is ast

name

ntitlesim

o.

Even

he rchaic

tage

props othe

itual

untfor

xample,

ophonisba's

ending

uck he

red ibbon romround er hroat)nderlinehe bsurdityf iving

by social

odesof the

past,

which

anction

ossessionnd

which

categorize

Tomey'surl's

rms

hatwere

upposedobe

black ut

were

ot

uite

white"p.

29)

differently

rom

uck's nd

Buddy's.

Obviously,

Was"

examines

he

semantics

f

racism, he

ways n

which

words

rom

world

which

was"

continueo

determine

perceptions,

nfluence

ctions,nd

enslave

eople.

he

encodingf

present

eality y

anachronistic

erbal

maps"7

rom he

past s

reflectednthe etting,henames, he itle,ndthe tructurefthe

action f

"Was,"as

well

as in its

syntactic

tyles.

Whether

he

narrative

yntaxf

"Was" s

comic

r

contemplative,

t

conveyshe

entrapmentfman n

an

accretion

f

elationships.

The comic

and

contemplative

tyles

re

present

hroughout

Faulkner's

orks,

s the

ollowing

nalysis

f

passages

rom

ight

n

August,The

Bear," he

Sound nd

the

ury, s

LayDying,

he

Hamlet,

ndTheReivers

llustrates.s

n

"Was" he

narrative

tylesmay emixedna givenwork: hererecontemplative

assages

n

comic

ovelsuch s

TheReiversndcomic

assages

n

novels

bout

subjects

uch

s

dying

nd

burying

hat

re

not

rdinarily

onsidered

comic. he

differenceetween

arrative

tyles

nd

tones

s due to

a

difference

n

the

degree

f concentrationf

stylistic

eatures;

s

Dolezel

pointsut

n

Statisticsnd

Style:

The overall

haracter

f

style

s

called

orth

y

he

egree

f

presence

or

absence)

f

certain

modeofexpression,atherhanby tsexclusivese (or complete

7

S.

I.

Hayakawa coined the terms

"maps" and "territories"

n

Language

and

Thought

in Action

(New York:

Harcourt,

Brace, I939), esp. ch. 2

on

"Symbols."








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

433

suppression)."8hedegree

f

embedded

valuation

r the

degree

of

foregroundingf

right-branching

ctions

reates ifferences

n

narrativeone.Of course,hereremixed ones etweenomedy

and

contemplation.

his

omewhatinary

istinctionf

the nds f

Faulkner's

arrativeontinuum

s

intendedo

clarifyowvariation

in

syntactic

tyle

ontributeso

varieties

f tone nd

differencesn

point

fview.

InLight n

August,

TheBear,"

ndThe

Sound nd the

Fury,

the

rocessf

evaluations

presented

n

the

ame yntactic

tyle

hat

beginshe irst

ectionf

Was"

ndfromhe

ame

mpatheticoint

of view.Themanymbeddingsotonly eflecthe ontemplative

stylef mind r

act

as

a

"mirror

f themind,"o use

Chomsky's

phrase;9

hey

lso nvolve

he eader

n

sorting

hrough

elationships

between

he

lements

mbedded

hrough

pposition,

egation,

r-

clauses,

ouble djectives,

nd

explicitomparison.he

effectf

these

ransformations

n

the

narrativeyntax

s toengagehe eader

inthe ct

f

valuation,

or

xample,

n

the

houghts

f

Joe

hristmas

as he

weighs

he

trangeness

f

his

xperience:

Thatnightstrangehingame nto ismind.

neg./doubling

He

layready

or

leep,

without

leeping,

ithout

comparison

seeming

o

need

the

leep,

s

he

would

place

his

negative

stomach

cquiescent

or

ood

which t

did

not

or-clause

seem

o

desire

r

need.

t

was

strange

n

the

negatives

sense

hathe could

discover

either erivation or

doubling/neg.

motivation

or

xplanation

or

t.He found hat

he

was tryingo

calculate he

dayoftheweek.

comparison

It

was

as

though

ow

and

at

ast

he

had an

actual

double dj. andurgent eedtostrike ff he ccomplished

appositive/neg.

ays oward

ome

purpose

r

act,without

ither

or-phrases

falling

hort r

overshooting."

The

words escribe

he

processs well

as the

contentf

thought.

The syntactic

tyle efinestates

f

thinking

nd

feeling y what

theyack

throughhe

foregroundingf

negatives,

hich

mply

n

8

Lubomir

Dolezel,

"A

Framework or the

Statistical

nalysis

f

Style,"

n

Statistics

and Style, d. LubomirDolezel and RichardBailey New York:American lsevier,

969),

pp. IO-II.

9

Noam

Chomsky, eflectionson

Language (New

York:

Pantheon, 975), p.

4.

10

Light

in

August

(New York:

Modern

ibrary,

932),

p.

3I7.








434

American

Literature

evaluation

f he

houghts

by lacing

hem gainst

he ackground"

(Labov,

.

380)

of bsent ualities:

erivation,

otivation,

xplana-

tion. hroughhenegatives,hepassage resentshepoint fview

that

uch xplicit

onnections

re absent

regardless

f the

motiva-

tions

nd explanations

hat

might

e

given fterward).

y

bringing

into onsciousness

othwhat

s and s

notpresent

n theprocess

f

thought,

he

yntactic

tylenvites point

f

view oward

ontem-

plation.

he

or-clauses,

omparisons,

nd

doubling

f

djectives

nd

nouns lso

bring

n a wider

ange f imultaneous

vents"

Labov,

p.

388)

and invite

omparative

valuations

f sleep

nd

hunger,

desirendneed, aysnd cts,ndof he ensef imelessnessnd ts

inherentpposite-the

eedto

order

ime.The

viewpoint

hat

thought

s

a

process

frelating

nd

connecting

s

built nto

the

syntactic

tyle.

The samenarrative

tylemarks

ther

assages

hat resent

on-

templation

nd createshe ame

ffect

fengaginghe

eader

n

an

evaluativetance,

point

f

view. or example,

he

ontemplation

of

he

meaning

f hewilderness

ndof

he ear

nvolves

n

attitude

toward oth heprocessndthe bject fcontemplation.

negative

He

had lready

nherited,hen,

ithout

ver

aving

double

dj.

seen

t,

he

ig

ld

bearwith ne

rap-ruined

oot

thatn

an

area

lmost

hundred ilesquare

ad

appositive

earned or

imself

name,

definiteesignation

comparison

like

living

man:-theong egend

f orn-cribs

appositives

broken own nd

rifledf

hoats

ndgrown

igs

doubling

and

ven alves arried

odilynto he

woods

nd

appositive devoured . .-a corridorfwreckagend destruc-

doubling

tion

eginning

ackbefore

e was

born...

Syntactically,

hebear s

transformed

nto

legend

hrough

pposi-

tion;byfurther

pposition,he

egend

fhis

ctionss

transformed

into corridor

f

wreckage

nd destruction.

he

bear scontinually

defined

y ll

the hings

e stands

or nd

canbe equated

ith: e

s

"an

anachronism,

ndomitable

nd invincibleut

of

an old dead

time,

phantom,

pitome

nd

apotheosis

f the

old

wild ife

the ldbear, olitary,ndomitable,ndalone;widoweredhildless

and

absolved fmortality-old

riam

eft f

hisold

wife

nd

out-

11

"The Bear," n

Go Down, Moses,

pp.

I92-93.








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

435

lived ll

his sons."

he

appositives

xtend

he

relationship

etween

the ear

nd

the ast ack oPriam. he

bear nd ts

egend

re

lso

expandeds they re defined ynegation:thasnotbeen een; t

speeds not

ast ut ather

ith

he uthlessnd rresistibleelibera-

tion

f

locomotive";

t

is

"not

malevolent

ut

ust

oo

big,

oo

big

for hedogs

which ried o

bay t . . . toobigfor he

very ountry

which

was tsconstricting

cope"; t is

"not ven mortal east."

The

negationxtendshe wareness

f

what

he

bear

might

ave

been,

ut

s

not not fast, ot

malevolent,otmortal) nd thus

impliesn

evaluationfwhat t s.Like

he ppositives,

henegatives

bringdditionalayers fmeaningnto onsciousness;oth yntax

patterns

eparateubjects

nd verbs,nd obscure

irect onnections

between

gents

nd

events.

ften heorder f

subject

nd

verb s

reversed,

urtherbscuring

onventionalyntactic

onnectionsnd

involvinghe reader n

the process f sorting

hroughhe parts

of

he

entenceor ignificance:a

corridorfwreckagenddestruc-

tion

eginning

ack

beforehe

boywas

born, hrough

hich

ped,

not

ast

ut

ather ith he uthlessnd

rresistible

eliberationf

locomotive,heshaggy remendoushape."The bear's ction s

introduceds a clause

escribingurther

he ppositivecorridor);

the ctor

omes ast.Other

entences

re patterned ith hesame

inverted

yntax: thedoomed

wilderness. .

through hich an

. . . the

ld

bear." ike he haracters,

he eaderenses utdoesnot

know

he

ause or vents

the ubjectfthe entence)

ntil ast.A

syntactictyle

hich

minimizes

ubjects

r absorbshem

y pposi-

tion s

the erfecttyle or

stablishinghenarrative

erspective

hat

theprocessf ife s less processf ndividualction han fthe

contemplation

f ntricateelationships

nd

nterconnections.

Quentin's

ontemplationf time nd

itsrelationshipo action

concludes

ith

n

explicit

tatementf a point f view

hat s also

latent

n

the

yntaxatterns

hat ransform

xperience

nto valuation.

When

he

hadow

f he

ash

ppeared

n the

urtains

it

was

between

even

nd

ight

'clock

nd

hen

was

in

time

gain, earing

he

watch.

t was

Grand-

father'sndwhen ather

ave

t

omehe

aid,

comparison Quentin,giveyou hemausoleumf llhope

nd

doubling desire;

t's ather

xcruciating-lypt

hat

ou

willuse

t

to

gain

he

educto

bsurdum

f

ll

human

xperience

hich

an

fit

ourndividual








436

American

Literature

neg.

omparison

eeds

o

betterhantfittedis

r

his

ather's.

or-phrase/neg.

give t

to

you

ot

that ou

may

emember

ime,

negative but hat oumightorgettnow nd hen or

negative

moment

ndnot

pend ll

your

reath

rying

o

negative

conquert.

Because

o

battle

s

everwon

he

aid.

negative

They renot ven

ought.

he

field

nly

eveals

o

doubling manhis

wn

folly

nd

despair,

nd

victory

s

an

doubling

illusion

f

philosophers

nd

fools.12

The

explicit

omparisons,

egatives,

r-phrase,

nd

doublingof

nouns

and

modifiers

ll

have

the

same

effect:f

transforminghe

event, hegift fthewatch,ntoan evaluation flife.The syntax

emphasizeswhat

cannot

be

won,

conquered,

ought,

emembered,

possessed,

nd

establishes

he

point

ofview

that s

stated

xplicitly

in the

concluding

oda:

life's

ctions

eveal

to

man"

only

his

own

folly

nd

despair."

he

closeness

fthis

vision

f

ife o

the

passage

in

Macbeth

hat

ontains

he

novel's

itles

reinforcedy

he

loseness

of

Faulkner's

yntactic

tyle

nd

the

style f

Macbeth's

peech

n

despair:

negative/appositiveife's ut walkinghadow,poor layer

doubling

That

truts

ndfrets ishour

pon

he

tage

appositive

And

hens

heard o

more.t

s a

tale

doubling

Told

by

n diot,

ull

f ound

nd

fury,

negative

Signifying

othing.

(V,

v,

24-8)

This is

notto

saythat

Faulkner

oundhis

style s

well

as his

title

n

Macbeth,

ut

merely

hat he

ontemplativeone

n

boths

established

through nearlydentical yntactictyle hat uits hevision flife

as

a

succession

f

hadows

ignifying

othing.

This vision

s

reinforced

otonly

by

the

syntactic

tructures

f

Faulkner's

narrative

tyle,but also

by the

over-all, rchitectural

structure

f

these

works.

The

four-part

tructure

fThe Sound

and

the

Fury

is an

extended

pposition

hat

equates

each

character's

evaluation f

the

ignificancef events. he

relationship

etween

he

four

oints

f

view s

parallel;

hey ile

on

top

of

each

other,

reating

layersof consciousness. he recurrentunts n "The Bear" and

"Was"

are

also parallel;

the

action

progresses

n a

cyclical ashion.

12

The

Sound and

the

FturyI929;

rpt. New

York: Random,

Vintage, 946),

p. 93.








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

437

Just s

theover-all tructuref

"Was"

moves

n a

circle,

o does

the

structuref

Light n August,which

ends

as it begins

with Lena's

meandering.aulkner'sarger arrativetructuresre ofa piecewith

the

yntactictructures

f

his narrative

tyle.

oth tructures

mbody

a

repetitiveision f

ife's ventswhich

s

consistent

ith

Quentin's

contemplative

valuation,

nherited romhis

father nd his father's

father-"that

o battles ever

won" and

that victorys an

illusion

of

philosophers

nd

fools."

This

vision

s sharedby

Faulkner'scomic

novels,which

also

present

ife s

movementn a

circle.The

differences in the

focus:

the comicpassages ocuson the foolishnessf the momentswhen

men

believe heir

ctions

an

result

n

victory.n

these

moments,

charactersirect

heir ctions n

a linearfashion

oward

goal that

is never

eached; he

inear,

ight-branching

yntactictyle

aptures

both the

direction f

the

actionsand

the

insignificance

f

each

individual

motion. he

piling p

of

parallel ctions

quates hedeeds

and creates

senseof accretion nd

speed.

n

short, he narrative

syntaxreates comic

erspective.

Thehorse uction n The

Hamlet

contains he ncient omic on-

test

etween

reed nd

gullibility.

rom

thepoint

f

view

of

victims

and

losers, uch events

re not

funny;

fromthe

more distanced

perspective

f

the

spectator,hey re.As in

the second

section

f

"Was,"Faulkner

ngageshis

audience

n

thedistanced omic

tance

through

he

syntactic

tyle

of

the narration.

n

The Hamlet

the

cavorting f the

uncaught, ut

bought-and-paid-for,orses s

pre-

sented

n a

right-branchingtylethat

contrastswith the

highly

embedded, valuative tyleof contemplation. ecause the comic

style

as

ittle

mbedding,he

right-branching

f

clauses

nd

phrases

of

equal

weight

llows

one action

o

supplant nother

apidly.

"Get tohelloutof

here,Wall " Eck

roared.

e

dropped o

the

floor,

coveringis head

withhis

arms.

The

boy

did

not

move,

nd

for

he

third ime he

horse oared bove

he

unwinkingyes

nd

the

unbowed

and

untouchedead nd onto he

ront eranda

gain

ust

s

Ratliff,till

carrying

he

ock,

an

round

he orner f the

house nd

up

the

teps.

Thehorsewhirled ithoutreakingrpausing.tgalloped othe ndof

the

veranda

nd

tookthe

railing

nd

soared

utward,

obgoblin

nd

floating,n the

moon. t

landed nthe ot till

unning

nd crossedhe

ot

and

gallopedhroughhe

wrecked

ate

nd

among he

verturnedagons








438

American

Literature

and the till ntact ne

n

whichHenry's

ife till

at,

nd on down

he

lane nd nto he

oad.13

The dominant

tylistic

eature

s

the

epetition

f

and,"

n

equating

conjunctionhat oesnot nvite valuation

n

the ame

way

s

sub-

ordinating

onjunctions,

hich xpresselationships

n

causality

r

time.

And . . and . . . and . . ."-the horse uns n as themen

ran on in "Was."The foregroundingf theright-branchings

so

heavy hat he ew mbeddedlementso not

deter he

low

f

the

action:

the two participial hrases

re

placed

toward he

right;

he

one

adjective lause s insignificant.he style

s

distinguishedy

the

high"degree" f right-branching;statisticalount s notnecessary

to

understanding

hat he

comic tone s

conveyed y

a cohesion

f

syntacticeatures

f a

distinctlyifferent

ind than

those ssociated

with contemplation. he same comic tone and style dominate

Ratliff'se-tellingf theepisode t thegeneral tore: It was

in

my

room nd it was on thefront orch nd I could hearMrs.Littlejohn

hitting

t

overthehead withthatwashboard n thebackyard ll at

the ame ime. nd

itwas

still

missing verybodyverytime.reckon

that'swhat thatTexas man meantby calling hembargains: hat

man

would need to be powerful nlucky o everget close enough

to

one of them to get hurt" p. 314). Ratliff's oncluding oda

provides he pointof view he wisheshis auditors o adopt,but the

comic

stance s implicit n the preceding entences escribing he

repetitive ovementsf thehorse.The principle f repetitions the

comic

principleunderlying lapstickhumor such as the Marx

brothers';n

Bergson's

erms, uch

repetition

s comic

because ts

mechanicalnatureremindsman of the limitations laced on his

vitality y mechanical

nd

bodily orces. he repetitivetylemaybe

funnymerely

ecause

repetition

verdone

r

not

going anywhere

belongs

to

comedy,

or

laughter

s

partly

reflex nd

like

other

reflexes

t

can be conditioned

y

a

simple epeated attern,"

s

Frye

points ut.'4The repeated atterns

f

this yntactictyle arallel he

patterning

f

the

action;

the rapid,mechanical epetitioneminds

Ratliffnd

the

eader

f

the bsence

f

thought

hat

ets

men

gulled.

The comic ccasion n Faulkner's ovels soften n occasionwhen

13

The Hamlet

193I;

rpt.New

York: Random, intage,

958),

p. 308.

14

NorthropFrye, "The

Mythos of Spring: Comedy" from Anatomyof Criticism

(I957;

rpt.New York:Atheneum,970), p. i68.








Faulkner's

arrative

tyles

439

actions

taken ithout

ontemplation.

n the

ontemplative

assages,

characters

ealize

hat

o

goal

s ever

chieved;

n the omic

assages

charactersctwithouthinkingfultimateutilities.n TheReivers

the

llusive

oal s

winning

race;

he

omic

erspective

oward

his

hope

s

present

hemomenthehorse

s-whenMillie

nnounces:

"Man

standing

n

the

back

yard

hollering

Mr.

Boon

Hogganbeck

t

the

back

wall of

the

house.

He

got

omething ig

with

him."

We

ran, following

oon, through he kitchen

nd out

into the

back

gallery.

t was quite dark

now; the moon

was

not high enough

yet

o

do

anygood. Two

dim

things,

little ne and

a big

one,

were

tanding

n the

middle of the back yard,the littleone bawling"Boon Hogganbeck

Mister

Boon

Hogganbeck

Hellaw.

Hellaw"

toward he

upstairs

windows

untilBoon

overrode

imby imple

olume:

"Shut

up

Shutup Shut

up "

It

was

Ned. Whathe

had withhim

was a

horse.15

The

amusing

oint f

view s

due to some

extent o the

verbal

excess:

he epetition

f

"Boon

Hogganbeck ister

oon

Hoggan-

beck Hellaw.

Hellaw"

nd

"Shut p Shut

p

Shut p "

conveys

the xcitementfthe haracters,he motionalxcess hat verrides

contemplation.

he

repetitionf

similar

hrasingt the

beginning

and

ending f

the

assage

einforces

his

erspective:

He

got

ome-

thing

igwith

im"-"What e had

with

him

was

a

horse." his

syntactic

tyle

s theperfect

tyle

or

races-of

men and horses-

because he

yntax

aptures

he ense f

motion;

or

xample,

n

the

two aces

n

The

Reivers:

I

cut

him

as

hard as

I could. He

broke,

altered,

prang gain; we

had

alreadymadeMcWillie a present ftwo lengths o I cut him again; we

went

nto

the

second ap

two lengths

back and

traveling

ow on

the

peeled switch

until

the gap

betweenhim

and Acheron

replaced

Ned in

what

Lightning

alled his

mind, nd he

closed

it again

until his

head

was

once

more

t

McWillie'sknee . .

. (p.

272-73).

. . .

McWillie

whipping

uriously

ow

and

Lightning

esponding

ike

a

charm, xactly

ne

neck

back;

if

Acheron

had

known

any way

to

run

sixtymiles n

hour,

we

would too-one

neckback;

f

Acheron ad

decided

to

stoptenfeet

efore

he wire,

o

would

we-one

neck

back

(p.

297).

The

right-branching

yntactictyle

aptureshe

actual

movement

of

the

action as in

"Was"

and The

Hamlet;

the

repetitiveness f the

15

TheReivers New

York: Random,

intage,

962),

p.

II5.








440

American Literature

passagesuggestshat earlyll races rerepetitive

nd

doomed

o

be ost y head.The comic imitations

re

no

different

rom

hose

recognizedn contemplation,ut uch aces re comic ecausehe

actors eepmoving

oward mere

llusion

f

victory.

This llusion

s also at the

heart f the

bsurdist

omedy

f

the

bizarreuneralrocession

n

As

LayDying.

eath nd

burying

an

only ecomeubjects

or

omedy

hen

hey rovide

he

ccasion

or

the iving o ssert hat anger alls the ital eeling"-the

uman

tendencyo "seize n opportunities,"o grab little

more f ife.16

However,

he

opportunism"

ecomes

bsurd hen ts

goals

ecome

unworthyfthe xpenditurefenergy-merelyogoto town rto

getnewteeth. he opportunism

f

Faulkner's

bsurdist

omedy

s

less

brainy"han

he

opportunism"anger

hinks

nderlies

omic

greed.n fact, he ackof thoughts whatmakes he pportunism

absurd s the haracters,hemules,nd themother'soffinll swirl

off

n

the

lood:

Cash

ried ut hefell ff

ndDarl

umped oing nder

e

went nder

and

Cashholleringo catch er

nd

hollering

nd

DeweyDell hollering

atme Vardaman ouVardaman ouvardamanndVernon assedme

because e was seeing er ome pandshe umped nto hewater gain

andDarlhadn't aught eryet.

..

The

mules ived p againdiving

heir

egs

tiff

heir

tiff

egsrolling

slow nd then arl again

nd

hollering

atch

erdarl

atch er

head

her nto he

bank

darl

nd

Vernonwouldn't

elp

nd then

arl

dodged

past hemules.

..

"Where

s ma,

Darl?"

said. You never other.

You

knew he s a

fish ut

you

et

her

get way.""17

The syntactictylemakes he actions wirl round ach other,

inundatingpportunityor hought.he piling p ofthe epetitive

actionss highlightedy the repetitionf "and" and of specific

words.

ardaman,

honarrateshis izarre

arody

f

rossing

o he

other

world,s,

of

course,

imited

n

contemplative

bilities

y

his

age. His perceptionf this ccretionf separatectionss not so

different

rom

enjy's

n

The

Sound

nd

the

Fury: They

ook he

flag ut,

nd

hey ere itting.hen hey ut he lag ack ndthey

16

Suzanne Langer,

"The Great

Dramatic

Forms:

Comic Rhythm,"

from

Feeling

and

Form (1953), as reprinted n Comedy, ed. Marvin Felheim (New York: Harcourt, Brace,

Jovanovich, 962), pp.

248

and

243.

17,AS

I

Lay Dying 1930; rpt. New York: Random, Vintage, 1957), pp. 143-44.








Faulkner's

Narrative Styles

44I

went

o

the able, nd

he

hit nd the ther

it.

Then

hey

went

n,

and wentlong he ence"

p. 23). The

repetitiveness

fthe

ctions

describeds emphasizedythe tylenwhich heyre described.

Of course, enjy'syntax

epresents

he

pitome

n lackofcontem-

plation; e literallyannot onnect,elate,

nd evaluate

vents,

nd

while his s not

omic n an acknowledgeddiot,

t s

in

menwho

pretendo

reason ut hare

enjy'stylefmind. enjy

nd Varda-

man re

patheticecause

hey recaughty ge and

nheritance

n

the

ccretionf actions

hey id not ause nd cannot

nderstand.

The patheticuality bout

hem s directly

onnectedo theirack

of bilityothink. s Freud emindss,human atureaughs t the

pathetic-athildrennd

diots nd hump acks"-perhaps

ecause

"we seean unncessaryxpenditure

f

movementhichwe should

spare urselvesfwe were

arryingut

the ame ctivity"nd "our

laughterxpressespleasurable

ense f he uperiority

hich efeel

inrelation"o anotherpp. 254-55).

In this ense,

ardaman nd

Benjy

re expansions

f the

comic

uality

f other aulknerian

charactersho are nvolved

n

activitieshey

o not

fully ompre-

hend, he utilityfwhich hey ave ot ontemplated.

Many f

the ctions hat

ccupy he

omic

cenes

n

Faulkner's

novelsmight

ecome ragic

f thecharactersnvolved

ngaged

n

contemplationftheirnsignificance,

f

the tylen whichhey ere

presented

nvolvedvaluation.

s Richard ewallpoints

ut,one

criticalspect

f tragedy

s contemplation,raduation

from he

conditionfpain ndfear

o he ondition

f uffering-whichs the

condition

f pain nd fear ontemplated."18

aulkner's

omic tyle

embodieshe ack of contemplationn its rapid, ight-branching

accumulation

f actions.

he

more

contemplative

assages

re

marked y

a

syntactic

tyle

hat

mposes

ontinual

valuation

f

what s by

ll

that s

related

o

t-by

all that

recedes

t,

tands

n

oppositiono it,

or

can

be

equated

with t.

The contemplative

r

comic

oint

fview

rows

rom he

tyle

f he

narration,egardless

of

whether

he uthor

r

a

character

s

doing

he

narrating.

his

consistencyetween tyle

nd toneaccounts

or the

consistency

between assageswith differentormal arrativetructuresnd

for

he ersistence

f he Faulknerian"

oice

n

the

oices

fdifferent

18

RichardB. Sewall, The Vision

of

Tragedy New Haven, Conn.:

Yale

Univ. Press,

I959), p.

6.








442

American Literature

characters.

further

enseof

consistencyn Faulkner's

narrative

style erives rom

ualities hared

by the contemplative

nd comi'c

styles,which both present n inundationof consciousness-by

thought

r

by

action.The syntactic

ccretion

hatmarks aulkner's

narrative

tyles ransforms

ndividual

xperienceshrough

yntactic

connectionshat

reate world

n which verything

srelated. oth

the contemplative

nd comic

styles onvey

relationshipsetween

layers

f experience,einforcing

hrough tyle he persistent

aulk-

nerian

hemes f the nterconnectedness

f all times, eoples,

nd

actions.

faulkner narrative styles

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