Exploring Racism, Sexism, and Humanity in Faulkner's Dry September, Apuntes de Literatura

¡Descarga Exploring Racism, Sexism, and Humanity in Faulkner's Dry September y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura solo en Docsity! WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1926) FAULKNER IN CONTEXT + Generally regarded as the greatest American fiction writer. + His simple explanation for his complex narratives: "There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will | be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat." (Nobel prize acceptance speech. Dec. 10, 1950) He denounced slavery and wrote about it. He defended the south and always opposed the idea of the north intervening in the south. He believed they had to solve their own problems. He was conservative. He grew up with legends about his ancestors, specially his grandfather. He is important in Faulkner's legacy as a positive and negative example. He had control over his migration. In dry September he tells a lot about the south: - “Racism and oppression of black people - The white woman is oppressed - The “niggerlover” He is regarded as the greatest American writer of the 20* century. His novels are difficult and obscure. He explained simply: the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself. * Faulkner acknowledged the importance of the extended family stories in his education as a writer: "The South's the place for a novelist to grow up because the folks there talk so much about the past. Why, when | was a little boy, there'd be sometimes 20 or 30 people in the house, mostly relatives, aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins, some maybe coming for overnight and staying on for months, swapping stories about the family and about the past, while | sat in a corner and listened. That's where | got my books." His second best novel is about very poor white people. The extended family is one of the characteristics of the southern culture. The stories of the family are also important. In the south many stories were integrated between family members and they were always talking about the past. e First novel: Soldier's Pay (1926) * Second novel: Masquitoes (1927) + Sartoris (1929)-invention of his mythical county Yoknapatawpha, based on Lafayette county, and establishment of his most powerful themes, including the force and burden of the past: "The past is never dead. It's not even past" (Gavin Stevens in Requiem for a Nun). + Writing Sartoris, Faulkner made a crucial discovery for his career as a writer: "I discovered that my own little postage stamp of native soil was worth writing about and that | would never live long enough to exhaust it, and that by sublimating the actual into the apocryphal | would have complete liberty to use whatever talent | might have to its absolute top. lt opened up a gold mine of other people, so | created a cosmos of my own." He tried to enlist in the army, but he was rejected. This was after something with a high school sweetheart. Then he married and | think he divorced and joined the Canadian air force but the war ended before he completed his training. However, he went around telling war stories. He was a drunk. He went to university for a year and a half in Mississippi. He studied French and was good at foreign languages. In 1924 he met an author in New Orleans. Anderson was considered the best. He spent several months with him in new Orleans and he told Faulkner to write fiction of what he knew (the stories) not poetry. He finished here his first novel in 1926 Soldier's Pay . In Sartoris he invented a country to set his stories. This is a native American name and it is based on Lafayette country. He talked about the force and burden of the past and how important it is in the south. He discovered that he could talk about his birthplace forever and that themes would never be exhausted. He wrote 20 novels and 15 of them are in Yoknapatawpha. + The Sound and the Fury (1929): the author's favourite novel, about the deterioration of the Compson family. Title taken from Macbeth: "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.” + AslLay Dying (1930) e Sanctuary (1931). e Light in August (1932) * Absalom, Absalom! (1936) e Intruder in the Dust (1948) The sound and the fury is very popular novel and his own favourite. It is about the economic and moral deterioration of a southern aristocratic family. It has 4 chapters each narrated by a different character. Four different conceptions of time. - Thesecond novel As | lay dying is also very important. Modernist narrative He is always trying to express the inexpressible aspects of individual psychology. - Sanctuary became very popular because of the sensationalism. It is the story of a collage girl who gets involved with criminals and drug dealers. It was a commercial success. - Light in August. Joe Christmas famous character (jesus christ) he does not know if he is white or black. He is eventually... because of the racist society sterilize black men? Myth: in slavery all blacks were nice but then they were bad and they got the idea of the black who rapes people, something like this happen in black September. - Absalom, Absalom! The southern myth. He tells the whole story of the south. The good things and the tragedies. He became the American dream and powerful but the dreams become a nightmare because of the war. He is ruined. + Mayesrepresents the whole black race that has to be punished and suppressed: McLendon whirled on the third speaker [who asked, "Did it really happen?"]. "Happen? What the hell difference does it make? Are you going to let the black sons get away with it until one really does it?" (171-72) The "dry September “of Minnie's life + Each of the central characters, John McLendon and Minnie Cooper, is both victimizer and victim. *e The high point of Minnie's life: "She was of comfortable people-not the best in Jefferson, but good people enough-and she was still on the slender side of ordinary looking, with a bright, faintly haggard manner and dress. When she was young she had had a slender, nervous body and a sort of hard vivacity which had enabled her for a time to ride upon the crest of the town's social life as exemplified by the high school party and church social period of her contemporaries while still children enough to be unclassconscious."” (173-74) The dry September of life: the white man is the protector of the white women's purity (sexual and racial). He ¡is a victim of a rigid social role. An image of masculinity connected with the racial question. They have to pretend to be very brave and violent if necessary. The poor white male is a double threat. Their masculinity is fragile. They were terrified of black masculinity and sexuality. They represented a sexual and economic threat. Mayes represents the whole black race that has to be supressed and punished. A real southern male would never believe a nigger over a white man. If you even questions the facts you are a traitor. They are all prisoners of social traditions. None of these men want to appear as cowards in front of the others. Individually they are cowards but being in the group makes the brave. They want to remind the black people that they are inferior and the minority so they have to kill them from time to time for white people to assert their power. They deny them the chance to have sex with a white woman. + The "southern rape complex": "The typical narrative of the southern rape complex assumes a black male rapist, an innocent white female victim, and a white male vigilante: the innocent white victim is transformed into asymbol of a threatened southern culture, while the black male rapist symbolizes that threat, and the white male ¡is thereby sanctioned by the 'code of honor' to seek revenge in the form of lynching" (Deborah Barker, Reconstructing Violence: The Southern Rape Complex in Film and Literature 1).The southern rape complex: a myth of the south time to time for white people to assert their power. They deny them the chance to have sex with a white woman. The black beast that rapes a pure white lady The "dry September "of McLendon's life + Initial description of McLendon which stresses his aggressive masculinity: "The screen door crashed open. A man stood in the floor, his feet apart and his heavy-set body poised easily. His white shirt was open at the throat; he wore a felt hat. His hot, bold glance swept the group. His name was McLendon. He had commanded troops at the front in France and had been decorated for valor.” (171) The initial description of McLendon stresses his aggressive masculinity. He was big in a period of his life, but he is not anymore. He is in the dry September of his life, and this has much to do with what he does in the story, this is the real motivation for his becoming the leader of the lynching mob. He has to assert his masculinity and power.