"He also said that The Sound and the Fury was the book closest to his heart because it had caused him the most anguish. It was to him, he said, what the crippled child was to its mother."
When I include Faulkner in my literature courses, I take time to contextualize the works within a late 19th century and early 20th century American South with which the author had a powerful love-hate relationship. However, as the years go by, and as I continue to teach in a university hidden away in the deep south, I have become increasingly aware that the timelessness of Faulkner's fictional world speaks volumes about the anachronistic 21st century American south's entrapment in an inescapable past. Thus, because of the region's cultural singularities, there are plenty of ironies in reading Faulkner in the year 2009; the challenge is encouraging students as they discover and deal with those ironies.
When I include Faulkner in my literature courses, I take time to contextualize the works within a late 19th century and early 20th century American South with which the author had a powerful love-hate relationship. However, as the years go by, and as I continue to teach in a university hidden away in the deep south, I have become increasingly aware that the timelessness of Faulkner's fictional world speaks volumes about the anachronistic 21st century American south's entrapment in an inescapable past. Thus, because of the region's cultural singularities, there are plenty of ironies in reading Faulkner in the year 2009; the challenge is encouraging students as they discover and deal with those ironies.
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