English 177-2 - Winter, 2014

Study of an Individual Author

Topic: William Faulkner

Class Information

Instructor: Embry, Karen
CRN: 84134
Time: TR 12:10-1:30
Location: 1342 Storer

Description

In this course we will read novels and short stories from what is considered Faulkner’s “major period” (1929-1942), with a focus on an analysis of narrative strategies, particularly the control of narrative temporality in the Faulknerian sentence. While many consider Faulkner’s works to contain some of the richest, most poetic prose written in the English language, some have described his most enigmatic sentences as “grotesqueries, replete with italics, dashes, parentheses, vacillating viewpoint, quotations within quotations, and all sorts of fantastic convolutions which seem to have sprung hideously malformed from the brain of a wasted genius during an opium trance,” or as simply “too long for modern ears.” We will consider these perspectives, along with the possibility of reading each sentence as a Faulknerian “mausoleum of hope and desire.” While an eye for narrative strategies and sentence construction will frame our reading of the texts, students will be free to pursue topics outside of this initial focus.

Grading

Reading Responses (20%)
Essay 1 (15%)
Essay 2 (25%)
Midterm (15%)
Final (25%)

Texts

The Sound and the Fury, (1929)
Light in August, (1932)
Absalom, Absalom!, (1936)
The Hamlet, (1940)
Collected Stories of William Faulkner