William Faulkner

Human Conflict

Dr. Peih-ying Lu

Oct 22, 2012

The author: William Faulkner William Faulkner, who came from

an old southern family, grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, a site he would rename Jefferson in his fiction and would use as the setting for almost all of his novels and short stories.

He is considered one of the prestigious Southern American writers.

He won Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949

In an attempt to create a saga of his own, Faulkner has invented a host of characters typical of the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South.

The theme of his well-know works (e.g. The Sound and the Fury) is the decay of the old South, as represented by distinguishing southern families, and the emergence of ruthless and brash newcomers

He also writes about the racial prejudice and the problems between Negros and whites.

Stream of Consciousness

Stream of consciousness writing aims to provide a textual equivalent to the stream of a fictional character’s consciousness

It creates the impression that the reader is eavesdropping on the flow of conscious experience in the character’s mind, gaining intimate access to their private “thoughts”.

Stream of consciousness writing was developed in the early twentieth century when writers became interested in the imagined inner lives of their fictional characters.

Faulkner’s The Sound and The Fury was thought to be one of the representative work of stream of consciousness.