The Bear William Faulkner - John Lydenberg (essay date 1952)
John Lydenberg (essay date 1952)
SOURCE: "Nature Myth in Faulkner's The Bear" in Myth and Literature: Contemporary Theory and Practice, University of Nebraska Press, 1966, pp. 257-64.
[In the following essay, which originally appeared in American Literature in 1952, Lydenberg explicates the symbolism of the nature myth informing the meaning and structure of "The Bear."]
William Faulkner's power derives in large part from his myth-making and myth-using ability. The mythical aspects of this work are twofold. One type of Faulkner myth has been widely recognized and discussed. Probably the best exposition of this appears in the introduction to the Viking Portable selections, in which Malcolm Cowley shows how Faulkner's vision of a mythical South informs and gives unity to the bulk of his best work. His characters grow out of the dense, lush fabric of Southern society. But they are not realistic exemplars of aspects of the...
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