William Faulkner and Southern History

About this book

One of Americas great novelists William Faulkner was a writer deeply rooted in the American South. In works such as The Sound and the Fury As I Lay Dying Light in August and Absalom Absalom! Faulkner drew powerfully on Southern themes attitudes and atmosphere to create his own world and place--the mythical Yoknapatawpha County--peopled with quintessential Southerners such as the Compsons Sartorises Snopes and McCaslins. Indeed to a degree perhaps unmatched by any other major twentieth-century novelist Faulkner remained at home and explored his own region--the history and culture and people of the South. Now in William Faulkner and Southern History one of Americas most acclaimed historians of the South Joel Williamson weaves together a perceptive biography of Faulkner himself an astute analysis of his works and a revealing history of Faulkners ancestors in Mississippi--a family history that becomes in Williamsons skilled hands a vivid portrait of Southern culture itself. Williamson provides an insightful look at Faulkners ancestors a group sketch so brilliant that the family comes alive almost as vividly as in Faulkners own fiction. Indeed his ancestors often outstrip his characters in their colorful and bizarre nature. Williamson has made several discoveries: the Falkners (William was the first to spell it "Faulkner") were not planter slaveholding "aristocrats"; Confederate Colonel Falkner was not an unalloyed hero and he probably sired protected and educated a mulatto daughter who married into Americas mulatto elite; Faulkners maternal grandfather Charlie Butler stole the towns money and disappeared in the winter of 1887-1888 never to return. Equally important Williamson uses these stories to underscore themes of race class economics politics religion sex and violence idealism and Romanticism--"the rainbow of elements in human culture"--that reappear in Faulkners work. He also shows that while Faulkners ancestors were no ordinary people and while he sometimes flashed a curious pride in them Faulkner came to embrace a pervasive sense of shame concerning both his family and his culture. This he wove into his writing especially about sex race class and violence psychic and otherwise. William Faulkner and Southern History represents an unprecedented publishing event--an eminent historian writing on a major literary figure. By revealing the deep history behind the art of the Souths most celebrated writer Williamson evokes new insights and deeper understanding providing anyone familiar with Faulkners great novels with a host of connections between his work his life and his ancestry.