Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Technical University of Darmstadt, language: English, abstract: William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” is considered “one of the greatest [Modernist] novels of the 20th century” (Churchwell), but what exactly qualifies it as such? To answer this question I will start by looking at what Modernism can be defined or classified as which means looking at its historical background as well as stylistic and thematic characteristics. After having done so I will examine Faulkner’s text in close comparison to these results and identify the commonalities along with the differences of theory and practice. In the process I will go into detail while analyzing some of the most striking characteristics of the novel in order to clarify their importance for Faulkner’s work as a whole.

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Technical University of Darmstadt, language: English, abstract: William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" is considered "one of the greatest [Modernist] novels of the 20th century" (Churchwell), but what exactly qualifies it as such? To answer this question I will start by looking at what Modernism can be defined or classified as which means looking at its historical background as well as stylistic and thematic characteristics. After having done so I will examine Faulkner's text in close comparison to these results and identify the commonalities along with the differences of theory and practice. In the process I will go into detail while analyzing some of the most striking characteristics of the novel in order to clarify their importance for Faulkner's work as a whole.

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner—also available are Snopes, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Absalom, Absalom!, and Selected Short Stories The Sound and the Fury, first published in 1929, is perhaps William Faulkner’s greatest book. It was immediately praised for its innovative narrative technique, and comparisons were made with Joyce and Dostoyevsky, but it did not receive popular acclaim until the late forties, shortly before Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The novel reveals the story of the disintegration of the Compson family, doomed inhabitants of Faulkner’s mythical Yoknapatawpha County, through the interior monologues of the idiot Benjy and his brothers, Quentin and Jason. Featuring a new Foreword by Marilynne Robinson, this edition follows the text corrected in 1984 by Faulkner expert Noel Polk and corresponds as closely as possible to the author’s original intentions. Included also is the Appendix that Faulkner wrote for The Portable Faulkner in 1946, which he called the “key to the whole book.”

Presents critical essays reflecting a variety of schools of criticism for The sound and the fury.

This study is intended both for first-time readers of The Sound and the Fury and-since it offers new scholarship and critical argument on Faulkner-for established critics and scholars. Chapter 1 provides some general context about Faulkner's life and work in the American South and 'Yoknapatawpha County', and introduces the form and style of Faulkner's novel. Chapter 2 provides a discussion of the contexts of Southern history and Faulkner's family history. Chapter 3 is a discussion of the influences on Faulkner of Modernist literature and Modernist psychology and philosophy. Chapter 4 gives a close commentary on each of the novel's four narratives

Through detailed analyses of individual texts, from the earliest poetry through Go Down, Moses, Singal traces Faulkner's attempt to liberate himself from the powerful and repressive Victorian culture in which he was raised by embracing the Modernist culture of the artistic avant-garde. Most important, it shows how Faulkner accommodated the conflicting demands of these two cultures by creating a set of dual identities - one, that of a Modernist author writing on the most daring and subversive issues of his day, and the other, that of a southern country gentleman loyal to the conservative mores of his community. It is in the clash between these two selves, Singal argues, that one finds the key to making sense of Faulkner.

The tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character's voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner's masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.