Home > Gothic Literature > Faulkner, William (1897 - 1962) - Elizabeth M. Kerr (Essay Date 1979)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

ELIZABETH M. KERR (ESSAY DATE 1979)

SOURCE: Kerr, Elizabeth M. "From Otranto to Yoknapatawpha: Faulkner's Gothic Heritage." In William Faulkner's Gothic Domain, pp. 3-28. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1979.

In the following excerpt, Kerr surveys the Gothic as it is exemplified in Faulkner's novels set in his fictional Yoknapatawpha.

The term "Gothic" unfortunately has pejorative connotations which we must recognize before giving it the comprehensive definition necessary to an examination of the pervasive Gothic elements in William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels. In current literary criticism "Gothic" either refers in the historical sense to the Gothic novel as a subgenre, from Horace Walpole through his literary successors such as Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Gregory Lewis, and Charles Maturin, or is loosely applied to various aspects of serious modern novelists such as Faulkner and Carson McCullers....

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. William Faulkner (Story Date 1930)
4. General Commentary
   1. Elizabeth M. Kerr (Essay Date 1979)
5. Title Commentary
   1. "A Rose for Emily"
   2. Sanctuary
6. Further Reading

1. William Faulkner