Faulkner, William (Vol. 9) - Faulkner, William 1897–1962
Faulkner, William 1897–1962
An American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and poet, Faulkner is regarded as a central figure in the literature of this century. Encouraged by Sherwood Anderson to write about his Mississippi home, Faulkner created the imaginary Yoknapatawpha, a county that became the stage for his view of human existence. As stated in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Faulkner considered his major theme to be "the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself." Many of his characters are passionate and violent, but human dignity is contrasted with the decay of the American South, its moral degeneracy and racial tension. Faulkner's complex style unites language with theme and character development through the use of stream-of-consciousness writing, interior monologue, and disordered chronology. Past and present become one, and characters gather significance as they are seen from many viewpoints. In addition to the 1950 Nobel...
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