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The Sound and the Fury

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This article is about the novel by William Faulkner. For the Shakespeare quote, see Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. For other uses, see The Sound and the Fury (disambiguation).
The Sound and the Fury
First edition
AuthorWilliam Faulkner
LanguageEnglish
GenreModernist novel
Stream of consciousness
Southern Gothic
Published1929
PublisherJonathan Cape and Harrison Smith
Publication date
1929
Publication placeUnited States
Pages326
OCLC21525355
813/.52 20
LC ClassPS3511.A86 S7
TextThe Sound and the Fury online

The Sound and the Fury is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. It employs several narrative styles, including stream of consciousness. Published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury was Faulkner's fourth novel, and was not immediately successful. In 1931, however, when Faulkner's sixth novel, Sanctuary, was published—a sensationalist story, which Faulkner later said was written only for money—The Sound and the Fury also became commercially successful, and Faulkner began to receive critical attention.[1]

The work has entered the public domain as of January 1, 2025.[2]

Composition & publication

[edit]

William Faulkner began writing The Sound and the Fury after a difficult experience publishing his third novel, Flags in the Dust. [3] Because Faulkner's first two novels, Soldiers' Pay and Mosquitoes, sold poorly, the publisher Horace Liveright declined to publish Flags. Faulkner spent nearly a year trying to find an alternate publisher, and finally settled for Harcourt Brace, which only agreed to publish a substantially abridged version under the name Sartoris.[4]. Faulkner worried he would never be published again, and wrote The Sound and the Fury without expecting it to be marketable or published within the decade.[5][6] Faulkner originally planned The Sound and the Fury as a short story, which would explore the thoughts of children sent away from their grandmother's funeral.[7][8] He was also inspired by the image of a girl climbing a tree while her brothers looked up at her muddy underwear.[3] Faulkner's working title for the novel was Twilight.[9] The final title comes from a soliloquy in Macbeth, in which the title character describes life as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".[10][11][12]

Faulkner drew inspiration from his own life. His own family had declined since the time of his great grandfather, who had been a colonel.[13] When Faulkner was 10 years old, he and his two brothers lived with their female cousin Sallie. The four experienced the death of Faulkner's maternal grandmother, whom he called "Damuddy"; in the novel, Quentin Compson is the same age when his Damuddy dies.[14] Faulkner knew a mentally disabled man in Oxford, Mississippi named Edwin Chandler, who was known for running behind a fence, and later wrote a story for the mentally disabled daughter of one of his professors at the University of Mississippi.[15] When Faulkner's childhood love Estelle Oldham married another man, leaving him distraught, Faulkner took his mind off her by visiting his friend Phil Stone in New Haven, Connecticut. This trip inspired Quentin's experiences at Harvard and his relationship with his roommate Shreve.[16][17] Shreve himself was based on a friend of Stone's named Stephen Benet, and was named after Benet's Yale roommate.[18]

Faulkner's stream of consciousness writing style was inspired by the works of James Joyce.[19][20] [a] Faulkner was also inspired by Ernest Hemingway; The Sound and the Fury borrows language from Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises to describe Benjy's castration.[21] The novel also strongly resembles My Ántonia by Willa Cather: both novels use multiple perspectives to show the decay of a family with four children, both feature a mentally impaired brother, a dedicated servant, and a woman who is only seen from outside perspectives, and both prominently feature suicide.[22] Faulkner also drew on his earlier short story The Kingdom of God, which also involved a mentally disabled character.[23][24], and his then-unpublished stories That Evening Sun and A Justice, which both featured the character of Quentin Compson.[25]

Faulkner finished the manuscript in Greenwich Village.[26] In March 1928, he sent the manuscript to Harcourt Brace, which had published Sartoris.[27] Harcourt Brace rejected the novel, but one of the company's editors, Harrison Smith, felt it deserved to published. Smith formed a new publishing company called Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, which agreed to publish Faulkner's book.[28] Faulkner extensively rewrote Quentin's section before the novel's publication. In particular, he moved the confrontation between Quentin and Caddy over Dalton Ames to three different positions; although it began as the opening scene of the chapter, Faulkner ultimately placed it at the end.[29] He also experimented with the use of punctuation in Benjy's chapter as late as the galley proofs.[30] Ben Wasson, the novel's editor, initially removed the italics from the first chapter and instead planned to represent its time shifts with line breaks, but Faulkner wrote Wasson a letter demanding he restore the italics.[31] The book was finally published on October 7, 1929.[32]

Plot summary

[edit]

The Compsons, a once-prosperous white family, live in Jefferson, Mississippi. They have three sons: Quentin, Benjamin ("Benjy"), and Jason, along with a daughter named Candace ("Caddy"). The family also employs a black servant, Disley Gibson, who lives on their property with her family. Early in their childhoods, the Compson children's grandmother ("Damuddy") dies. Caddy climbs a tree to look inside her grandmother's room and observe her funeral, while her brothers look up at her mud-soaked underwear. Later, when Benjy is five years old, his parents realize he's severely mentally disabled and incapable of speech; his mother, who originally named him after her brother Maury, renames him Benjamin.

In 1909, Caddy has sex with a boy named Dalton Ames. Quentin, distraught, attempts to defend her honor. He proposes a joint suicide with Caddy, tries to fight Ames, and tells his father that he, not Ames, had sex with his sister.[b] The Compsons send Quentin to Harvard University, paying for his tuition by selling Benjy's share of the family's land. His parents then take Caddy, now pregnant,[c] to French Lick, Indiana, where she meets a banker named Herbert Head. Caddy and Head marry in 1910, and Head promises Jason Compson a job at his bank. However, Caddy's father reveals that she was pregnant before meeting Head, leading Head to divorce her.

On June 2, 1910, Quentin plans to kill himself. After buying flat irons, he meets a young Italian girl and tries to take her home, only for her brother to interpret him as a kidnapper. He reports Quentin to the authorities, who make him pay a fine. Later, Quentin attacks his boorish classmate Gerald Bland, who reminds him of Dalton Ames, but Bland knocks him unconscious. Quentin returns to his dorm to clean himself up, then uses the irons to drown himself in the Charles River. Caddy names her daughter Quentin ("Miss Quentin") after her late brother.

Over the following years, Mr. Compson dies from alcoholism, leaving Jason and his mother to run the house. Roskus, Dilsey's husband, also dies. Benjy's former plot of land, sold to pay for Quentin's tuition, becomes a golf course. Benjy is castrated after chasing a schoolgirl he believes to be Caddy. Caddy leaves Miss Quentin with Jason and her mother, but they refuse to let Caddy live with them. Instead, Caddy sends them money every month, which Jason keeps for himself.

Most of the novel takes place over Easter weekend in 1928. On Good Friday, Jason torments Miss Quentin, whom he blames for costing him the job at Head's bank, and unsuccessfully uses Caddy's money to short-sell cotton futures. On Holy Saturday, Benjy celebrates his 33rd birthday. Dilsey's grandson Luster looks after him while searching for a quarter so he can attend a traveling carnival; he ultimately receives one from Miss Quentin. That night, Miss Quentin steals Jason's money. She then escapes the Compson house by climbing down the same tree Caddy climbed as a child. On Easter, Dilsey takes her family and Benjy to a black church, where they listen to a sermon from Reverend Shegog. Meanwhile, Jason attempts to chase after Miss Quentin, who has left town with a man from the carnival. After catching up with the carnival in the nearby town of Mottson, Jason provokes a fight with one of the workers and injures himself in the confrontation. Having failed to find Miss Quentin, he hires a black man to drive him home. Back in Jefferson, Luster takes Benjy to the town cemetery, but travels the wrong way around a Confederate monument in the town square. Jason returns to find Benjy crying over this disruption to his routine; he intervenes and takes Benjy the right way.

Style & structure

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The novel's episodes follow the three days of Easter.[36] The four parts of the novel relate many of the same episodes, each from a different point of view and therefore with emphasis on different themes and events. This interweaving and nonlinear structure makes any true synopsis of the novel difficult, especially since the narrators are all unreliable in their own way, making their accounts not necessarily trustworthy at all times. Also in this novel, Faulkner uses italics to indicate points in each section where the narrative is moving into a significant moment in the past. The use of these italics can be confusing, however, as time shifts are not always marked by the use of italics, and periods of different time in each section do not necessarily stay in italics for the duration of the flashback. Thus, these time shifts can often be jarring and confusing, and require particularly close reading.[citation needed]

Part 1: April 7, 1928

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There was a light at the top of the stairs. Father was there, in his shirt sleeves. The way he looked said Hush. Caddy whispered,

"Is Mother sick."

Versh set me down and we went into Mother’s room. There was a fire. It was rising and falling on the walls. There was another fire in the mirror. I could smell the sickness. It was a cloth folded on Mother’s head. Her hair was on the pillow. The fire didn’t reach it, but it shone on her hand, where her rings were jumping.

"Come and tell Mother goodnight." Caddy said. We went to the bed. The fire went out of the mirror.


— This excerpt from The Sound and the Fury demonstrates some of Benjy's distinct narrative traits: flattened dialog, short sentences, interwoven memories distinguished with italics, and disconnected observations that ignore cause and effect.

The first chapter is narrated by Benjy, a mentally disabled man who does not distinguish memories of his past from his present.[37] Although the chapter is set in 1928, it focuses on Benjy's memories of events prior to June 1910,[38][39] especially his sister Caddy's wedding, his mother's decision to rename him, and his earliest memories from the day Damuddy died.[39][40] Each time the narrative returns to Damuddy's death day, those memories resume chronologically where they left off;[41] the chapter ends as Benjy remembers falling asleep with Caddy that night.[42]

Benjy uses short, direct sentences.[43] He has a limited vocabulary of around 500 words, mostly for concrete objects,[44] which forces him to use circumlocution and invent compound words.[45][46] Benjy himself is mute,[47] but he can relay complex grammar and vocabulary from other characters' speech, even when he does not understand what they mean.[48][49][50] However, he exclusively punctuates quoted dialog with periods, flattening speakers' emphasis and emotions.[51][52] He almost exclusively uses the verb "said", even when this leads to repetition;[53] on one page, he repeats the phrase "Luster said" ten times.[54] Benjy sometimes interweaves separate conversations as though they took place simultaneously.[55] If he does not know who said a line of a dialog, he reports the words without quotation marks or attribution.[54][56][57]

Benjy describes events in isolation, failing to understand cause and effect.[58][59][60] For example, he does not connect the action of turning off the lights with his observation that "the room went away".[61] He assigns agency to inanimate objects and his own body parts, which he perceives as moving on their own.[62][63] He does not anticipate the future.[64] His sensory experiences are synesthetic;[65][66] he smells temperature[67] and experiences arousal, fear, and contentment as "bright shapes".[68] When he becomes drunk, he does not recognize his own disorientation, instead believing the family's cows are jumping around.[69][70] Since Benjy does not see how his experiences are related, the reader has to structure his observations on his behalf.[71] Benjy thus inverts the usual role of a narrator, which would traditionally contextualize and interpret a story's events.[72]

Benjy's narration combines events from different time periods, which creates a disorienting effect.[73] In the present, he hears golfers call for a caddie, which triggers memories of his sister Caddy.[d][52] Later, he interweaves memories of his father's funeral with his brother Quentin's,[75] Caddy's romance in a swing with her daughter's later romance in that same swing,[76] and Caddy's wedding with the first time she wore perfume at age 14.[77]

When the narration moves to a new time period, the book's font usually transitions between italic and roman type,[43][78] but not always.[e][79][80] This text formatting is non-diegetic; Benjy does not understand these connections or the chronological transitions himself.[81] In total, the chapter contains over a hundred narrative fragments[39] from around 16 different points in time.[79] These shifts in time become more frequent as the chapter goes on.[82] Benjy's memories highlight things he's lost, especially his sister.[83][84] In the present, Luster consistently misinterprets why Benjy is sad.[85] However, in his memories, Caddy understands Benjy's emotions and provides clarity.[86]

Despite Benjy's confusion, he presents an unbiased view of events.[47] He also understands things other characters do not, such as immediately recognizing Caddy is no longer a virgin and intuiting that her wedding is not celebratory, but tragic.[87][88]

Part 2: June 2, 1910

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Quentin, the most intelligent of the Compson children, gives the novel's best example of Faulkner's narrative technique. We see him as a freshman at Harvard University, wandering the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, contemplating death, and remembering his family's estrangement from his sister Caddy. Like the first section, its narrative is not strictly linear, though the two interweaving threads, of Quentin at Harvard on the one hand, and of his memories on the other, are clearly discernible. Throughout this section, Quentin makes preparations for his suicide by drowning, including leaving letters for classmates.

Quentin's main obsession is Caddy's virginity and purity. He is obsessed with Southern ideals of chivalry and is strongly protective of women, especially his sister; he is horrified when she engages in sexual promiscuity. He turns to his father for help and counsel, but the pragmatic Mr. Compson tells him that virginity is invented by men and should not be taken seriously. He also tells Quentin that time will heal all. Quentin spends much of his time trying to prove his father wrong, but is unable to do so. Shortly before Quentin leaves for Harvard in the fall of 1909, Caddy becomes pregnant by a lover she is unable to identify, perhaps Dalton Ames, whom Quentin confronts. The two fight, with Quentin losing disgracefully and Caddy vowing, for Quentin's sake, to never speak to Dalton again. Quentin tells his father that they have committed incest, but his father knows that he is lying: "and he did you try to make her do it and i i was afraid to i was afraid she might and then it wouldn't do any good" (112). Quentin's idea of incest is shaped by the idea that, if they "could just have done something so dreadful that they would have fled hell except us" (51), he could protect his sister by joining her in whatever punishment she might endure. In his mind, he feels a need to take responsibility for Caddy's sin.

Pregnant and alone, Caddy marries Herbert Head. Quentin finds him repulsive, but Caddy is resolute: she must marry before she gives birth. Herbert finds out that the child is not his, and sends Caddy and her new daughter away in shame. He also rescinds his offer of a bank job to Caddy's brother Jason, who holds Caddy responsible for this misfortune and never forgives her. Quentin's wanderings through Harvard as he cuts classes follow the pattern of his heartbreak over losing Caddy. For instance, he meets a small Italian immigrant girl who speaks no English. Significantly, he calls her "sister" and spends much of the day trying to communicate with her, and to care for her by finding her home, to no avail. He thinks sadly of the downfall and squalor of the South after the American Civil War. Tormented by his conflicting thoughts and emotions, Quentin commits suicide by drowning.

Part 3: April 6, 1928

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The third section is narrated by Jason, the third child and his mother Caroline's favorite. Ironically, he is the only child who does not want, need, or return her love. It takes place the day before Benjy's section, on Good Friday. Of the three brothers' sections, Jason's is the most straightforward, reflecting his single-minded desire to make money. He worries obsessively about his (bad) investments in the cotton market, which symbolize the financial decline of the South.

By 1928, Jason's father has died and Jason has become the family breadwinner. He supports his mother, Benjy, and Miss Quentin (daughter of Caddy, the family's second-born), as well as the family's servants. The unjust burden makes him bitter and cynical, with little of the passionate sensitivity of his irresponsible older brother and sister. He goes so far as to blackmail Caddy into making him Miss Quentin's sole guardian, then uses that role to steal the support payments that Caddy sends for her daughter, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars over 17 years, stashing thousands in cash in a strongbox. Jason uses the money to maintain a mistress in Memphis and play the stock market. Miss Quentin and her lover later recoup some of the money by climbing through a window and purloining the strongbox.

This is the first section narrated in a mostly linear fashion, compared with Benjy and Quentin’s disjointed stream of consciousness. It follows the course of Good Friday, a day on which Jason decides to leave work to search for Miss Quentin, who has run away, seemingly in pursuit of mischief. Here we see most immediately the conflict between the two predominant traits of the Compson family, which Caroline attributes to the difference between her blood and her husband's: on the one hand, Miss Quentin's recklessness and passion, inherited from her mother and Compson’s grandfather; on the other, Jason's ruthless cynicism, drawn from his father's side. This section also gives the clearest image of domestic life in the Compson household, with Jason and the servants caring for hypochondriac Caroline and disabled Benjy.

Part 4: April 8, 1928

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April 8, 1928, is Easter Sunday. This section, the only one without a single first-person narrator, focuses on Dilsey, the powerful matriarch of the Black family servants. She, in contrast to the declining Compsons, draws strength from her faith, standing proud amid a dying family. On this Easter Sunday, Dilsey takes her family and Benjy to the "colored" church. Through her we sense the decay and depravity which have ripened in the Compsons for decades. Dilsey is mistreated and abused, but remains loyal. She and her grandson Luster tend to Benjy as she takes him to church and tries to bring him to salvation. The preacher's sermon makes her weep for the Compson family, whose destruction she is now witnessing.

Meanwhile, the tension between Jason and Miss Quentin reaches its inevitable conclusion. The family discovers that Miss Quentin has run away in the night with a carnival worker, having taken the strongbox in which Jason had hidden all his savings, both earned and stolen. Jason complains to the sheriff, who is sympathetic to Miss Quentin and refuses to help. Since much of the money had been embezzled from Miss Quentin, Jason doesn't press the issue. He sets off to find her on his own, but loses her trail in nearby Mottson and gives up.

After church, Dilsey allows her grandson Luster to drive Benjy in the family's decrepit horse and carriage to the graveyard. Luster, disregarding Benjy's set routine, drives the wrong way around a monument, provoking Benjy into hysterical sobbing. Jason suddenly appears, slaps Luster, turns the carriage around, and, in an attempt to quiet the sobbing, hits Benjy and breaks his flower stalk, screaming "Shut up!" After Jason gets off and Luster heads home, Benjy falls silent. Luster turns around to look at Benjy and sees him holding his drooping flower, his eyes "empty and blue and serene again."

Appendix

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In 1945, Faulkner wrote a new appendix for the novel, covering the history of the Compson family from 1699 through 1945. Faulker originally intended the appendix to be included in The Portable Faulkner as a preface to the novel's fourth chapter, which was excerpted from the rest of the novel. He believed he should have included the appendix when he first wrote the novel, and asked Random House to include it at the beginning of the novel's next edition. However, editions of the novel which include the appendix have instead placed it at the end.[89][90]

The appendix depicts the Compson family as the descendants of the Scottish Quentin MacLachan, who fled the Battle of Culloden. In America, the family received land from the Chickasaw and established a plantation, only to decay following the South's loss in the American Civil War. The appendix ends with Benjy in a mental institution, Caddy in Nazi Germany, and Miss Quentin having fled her family.[91][92] Thus, the appendix is bookended by two Quentins leaving home.[93][91]

Faulkner admitted that he wrote the appendix without consulting the novel.[94] As a result, the appendix is inconsistent with the main text. For example, Luster is now several years younger than Miss Quentin, while the novel depicts them as the same age,[95] and Miss Quentin now escapes by climbing down a rain pipe, rather than the tree that her mother climbed as a child.[96] Faulkner's editor Ben Cowley pointed out the appendix's inconsistencies, but Faulkner chose not to reconcile them. [97] Editor Noel Polk opted not to include the appendix in a modern edition, arguing that the novel's compelling ambiguity is "seriously compromised" by it,[98] while Frédérique Spill criticized the appendix as a "didactic" afterthought.[99]

Characters

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See also: Compson Family
  • Jason Compson III – father of the Compson family, a lawyer who attended the University of the South: a pessimist and alcoholic, with cynical opinions that torment his son Quentin. He also narrates several chapters of Absalom, Absalom!
  • Caroline Bascomb Compson – wife of Jason Compson III: a self-absorbed neurotic who has never shown affection for any of her children except Jason, whom she seems to like only because he takes after her side of the family. In her old age she has become an abusive hypochondriac.
  • Quentin Compson III – the oldest Compson child: passionate and neurotic, he commits suicide as the tragic culmination of the damaging influence of his father's pessimistic philosophy and his inability to cope with his sister's sexual promiscuity. He is also a character in Absalom, Absalom! The bridge over the Charles River, where he commits suicide in the novel, bears a plaque to commemorate the character's life and death.
  • Candace "Caddy" Compson – the second Compson child, strong-willed yet caring. Benjy's only real caregiver and Quentin's best friend. According to Faulkner, Caddy is the true hero of the novel. Caddy never develops a voice; rather, her brothers' emotions towards her provide the development of her character.
  • Jason Compson IV – the bitter, openly racist third child who is troubled by monetary debt and sexual frustration. He works at a farming goods store owned by a man named Earl and becomes head of the household in 1912. Has been embezzling Miss Quentin's support payments for years. To Faulkner, Jason represented "complete evil".[100]: 114 
  • Benjamin (nicknamed Benjy, born Maury) Compson – the mentally-disabled fourth child, who is a constant source of shame and grief for his family, especially his mother, who insisted on his name change to Benjamin. Caddy is the only family member who shows any genuine love towards him. Luster, albeit begrudgingly, shows concern for him occasionally, but usually out of obligation. He has an almost animal-like "sixth sense" about people, as he was able to tell that Caddy had lost her virginity just from her smell. The model for Benjy's character may have had its beginning in the 1925 New Orleans Times Picayune sketch by Faulkner entitled "The Kingdom of God".
  • Dilsey Gibson – the matriarch of the servant family, which includes her own three children — Versh, Frony, and T.P. — and her grandson Luster (Frony's son); they serve as Benjamin's caretakers throughout his life. An observer of the Compson family's decline.
  • Miss Quentin Compson – daughter of Caddy, whom the Compsons take in when Herbert divorces Caddy. She is wild and promiscuous and eventually runs away from home. Often referred to as "Quentin II" or "Miss Quentin" by readers to distinguish her from her uncle, for whom she was named.

Reception

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Upon publication the influential critic Clifton Fadiman dismissed the novel, arguing in The Nation that "the theme and the characters are trivial, unworthy of the enormous and complex craftsmanship expended on them."[101] But The Sound and the Fury ultimately went on to achieve a prominent place among the greatest of American novels, playing a role in William Faulkner's receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature.

It is nearly unanimously considered a masterpiece by literary critics and scholars, but its unconventional narrative style frequently alienates new readers. Although the vocabulary is generally basic, the stream-of-consciousness technique, which attempts to transcribe the thoughts of the narrators directly, with frequent switches in time and setting and with loose sentence structure and grammar, has made it a quintessentially difficult modernist work.

Adaptations

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A 1959 film adaptation was directed by Martin Ritt, starring Yul Brynner as Jason Compson and Joanne Woodward as Miss Quentin. The film was substantially different from the novel, focusing almost entirely on the relationship between Jason and Miss Quentin rather than the family as a whole.[102][103] Unlike in the novel, Miss Quentin ultimately decides not to leave the Compson house.[104] The film has generally been considered a poor adaptation.[105]

Another adaptation, The Sound and the Fury (2014), was directed by James Franco and starred Franco as Benjy Compson, Jacob Loeb as Quentin Compson, Joey King as Miss Quentin, Tim Blake Nelson as Mr. Compson, Loretta Devine as Dilsey, Ahna O'Reilly as Caddy Compson, Scott Haze as Jason Compson, Kylen Davis as Luster, Seth Rogen as a Telegraph Operator, Danny McBride as a Sheriff, and Logan Marshall-Green as Dalton Ames. It made its premiere at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, where it screened out-of-competition.

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Faulkner once gave his wife a copy of Ulysses, which he felt would help her understand his own writing.[20]
  2. ^ It is ambiguous which, if any, of these events actually happened, and which are merely Quentin's imagination. After the book's publication, Faulkner stated that Quentin only imagined the confession to his father.[33]
  3. ^ Some critics interpret Dalton Ames as the father of Caddy's child.[34] Others believe the father was not Ames.[35]
  4. ^ Taylor Hagood notes that Benjy's narration does differentiate these words by their spelling, implying that Benjy does understand the distinction between the golf caddy and his sister.[74]
  5. ^ Benjy's chapter also uses italics to distinguish "foreground" vs "background" dialog when he hears multiple conversations at the same time.[55]

References

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  1. ^ Morrison, Gail M. "The Composition of The Sound and the Fury". University of Saskatchewan.
  2. ^ Jenkins, Jennifer; Boyle, James. "Public Domain Day 2025". Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
  3. ^ a b Cohen & Fowler 2000, p. 50.
  4. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 33–34.
  5. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 34.
  6. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 43.
  7. ^ Hamblin & Peek 1999, p. 80.
  8. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 42.
  9. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 72.
  10. ^ Hamblin & Peek 1999, p. 361.
  11. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 53.
  12. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 74.
  13. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 61.
  14. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 23.
  15. ^ McHaney 2000, pp. 24–25.
  16. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 92.
  17. ^ Ring 2017, p. 196.
  18. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 41–42.
  19. ^ Hamblin & Peek 1999, p. 385.
  20. ^ a b McHaney 2000, p. 83.
  21. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 190.
  22. ^ Hamblin & Peek 1999, p. 64.
  23. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 20.
  24. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 36.
  25. ^ Pitavy 1982, p. 82.
  26. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 45.
  27. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 45.
  28. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 47.
  29. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 46.
  30. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 55.
  31. ^ Polk 1985, p. 5.
  32. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 1.
  33. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 149.
  34. ^ Kirk & Klotz 1963, p. 30.
  35. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 34.
  36. ^ Butler, Christopher (2010). Modernism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-19-280441-9.
  37. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 8–10.
  38. ^ Volpe 1964, p. 94–95.
  39. ^ a b c Hamblin & Peek 1999, p. 174.
  40. ^ Morrison 1982, p. 50.
  41. ^ Toker 1988, p. 130–131.
  42. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 53.
  43. ^ a b Parker 2000, p. 29.
  44. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 69–70.
  45. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 64.
  46. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 180.
  47. ^ a b Rio-Jelliffe 2001, p. 88.
  48. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 45.
  49. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 174.
  50. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 67.
  51. ^ Polk 1985, p. 8-9.
  52. ^ a b Ross & Polk 1996, p. 9.
  53. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 68.
  54. ^ a b Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 46.
  55. ^ a b Ross & Polk 1996, p. 13.
  56. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 17.
  57. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 20–21.
  58. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 10.
  59. ^ Parker 2000, p. 28.
  60. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 48.
  61. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 72.
  62. ^ Cohen & Fowler 2000, p. 56.
  63. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 89.
  64. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 73.
  65. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 141.
  66. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 75.
  67. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 12.
  68. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 71.
  69. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 149.
  70. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 19.
  71. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 213.
  72. ^ Cecil 1982, p. 69.
  73. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 5.
  74. ^ Hagood 2012, p. 101.
  75. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 22.
  76. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 30.
  77. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 27.
  78. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 11.
  79. ^ a b Parker 2000, p. 30.
  80. ^ Ross & Polk 1996, p. 23.
  81. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 56.
  82. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 52.
  83. ^ Matthews 2000, p. 123.
  84. ^ Parker 2000, p. 32.
  85. ^ Hamblin & Peek 1999, p. 237.
  86. ^ Toker 1988, p. 116–117.
  87. ^ Coffee 1983, p. 39.
  88. ^ Rio-Jelliffe 2001, p. 89.
  89. ^ Taylor 2000, p. 64–66.
  90. ^ Polk 1985, p. 16-19.
  91. ^ a b Hamblin & Peek 1999, p. 18-19.
  92. ^ Roberts 1994, pp. 65–66.
  93. ^ Peek 2000, p. 68.
  94. ^ Taylor 2000, p. 66.
  95. ^ Volpe 1964, p. 362.
  96. ^ Stewart & Backus 1958, p. 441.
  97. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 31.
  98. ^ Polk 1985, p. 19.
  99. ^ Spill & Gharibian 2024, p. 216.
  100. ^ G.W., Allen (1962). "With Faulkner in Japan". The American Scholar. Vol. 31 (31(4) ed.). Washington D.C.: Phi Beta Kappa Society. p. 570. JSTOR 41208986.
  101. ^ Heitman, Danny (Summer 2017). "Clifton Fadiman Didn't Mind Being Called Schoolmasterish". Humanities. Vol. 38, no. 3.
  102. ^ McHaney 2000, p. 183–185.
  103. ^ Arnold 2000, p. 3.
  104. ^ Metz 1999, p. 27.
  105. ^ Metz 1999, p. 21.


Bibliography

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  • Arnold, Edwin T. (2000). "Faulkner Writ Large/Faulkner Ritt Small". Faulkner Journal. 16 (1/2): 3–6. ISSN 0884-2949.
  • Cecil, L. Moffitt (1982). "A Rhetoric for Benjy". In Bleikasten, André (ed.). William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: A Critical Casebook. New York & London: Garland Publishing. pp. 65–78. ISBN 0-8240-9269-4.
  • Coffee, Jessie McGuire (1983). Faulkner's un-Christlike Christians: Biblical allusions in the novels. Ann Arbor, Mich: UMI Research Press. ISBN 0-8357-1432-2.
  • Cohen, Philip; Fowler, Doreen (2000). "Using Faulkner's Introduction to Teach The Sound and the Fury". In Hahn, Stephen; Kinney, Arther F. (eds.). Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America. ISBN 0-87352-737-2.
  • Hagood, Taylor (2012). "The Secret Machinery of Textuality, Or, What Is Benjy Compson Really Thinking?". In Trefzer, Annette; Abadie, Ann (eds.). Faulkner and Formalism: Returns of the Text. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 107–128. ISBN 978-1-61703-256-1.
  • Hamblin, Robert; Peek, Charles (1999). A William Faulkner encyclopedia. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-29851-3.
  • Kirk, Robert W.; Klotz, Marvin (1963). Faulkner's People: A Complete Guide and Index to Characters in the Fiction of William Faulkner. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 28–49.
  • Matthews, John (2000). "Text and Context: Teaching The Sound and the Fury after Deconstruction". In Kinney, Stephen (ed.). Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America. ISBN 0-87352-737-2.
  • McHaney, Thomas (2000). Literary Masterpieces Volume 6: The Sound and the Fury. Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group. ISBN 0-7876-4472-2.
  • Metz, Walter (1999). ""Signifying Nothing?": Martin Ritt's "The Sound and the Fury" (1959) as Deconstructive Adaptation". Literature/Film Quarterly. 27 (1): 21–31. ISSN 0090-4260.
  • Morrison, Gail (1982). "The Composition of The Sound and the Fury". In Bleikasten, André (ed.). William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: A Critical Casebook. New York & London: Garland Publishing. pp. 33–64. ISBN 0-8240-9269-4.
  • Parker, Robert Dale (2000). ""Through the Fence, between the Curling Flower Spaces": Teaching the First Section of The Sound and the Fury". In Hahn, Stephen; Kinney, Arthur F. (eds.). Approaches to Teaching Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America. pp. 27–37. ISBN 0-87352-737-2.
  • Peek, Charles (2000). "Order and Flight: Teaching The Sound and the Fury Using the Appendix". In Kinney, Stephen (ed.). Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America. ISBN 0-87352-737-2.
  • Pitavy, François (1982). "Through the Poet's Eye: A View of Quentin Compson". In Bleikasten, André (ed.). William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: A Critical Casebook. New York & London: Garland Publishing. pp. 79–100. ISBN 0-8240-9269-4.
  • Polk, Noel (1985). An Editorial Handbook for William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. New York & London: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8240-8832-8.
  • Ring, Natalie (2017). "Massachussets and Mississippi: Faulkner, History, and the Problem of the South". In Watson, Jay; Thomas, James (eds.). Faulkner and History. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 192–209. ISBN 9781496809971.
  • Rio-Jelliffe, R. (2001). "The Sound and the Fury: Voice and Structure". Obscurity's Myriad Components: The Theory and Practice of William Faulkner. Lewisburg [PA] : London: Bucknell University Press. ISBN 0-8387-5462-7.
  • Roberts, Diane (1994). Faulkner and Southern Womanhood. Athens: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1567-2.
  • Ross, Stephen M.; Polk, Noel (1996). Reading Faulkner: "The Sound and the Fury". Jackson (Miss.): University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0-87805-935-0.
  • Taylor, Walter (2000). "The Compson Appendix as an Aid to Teaching The Sound and the Fury". In Kinney, Stephen (ed.). Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America. ISBN 0-87352-737-2.
  • Spill, Frédérique; Gharibian, Arby (2024). Inventing Benjy: William Faulkner's Most Splendid Creative Leap. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496849007.
  • Stewart, George R.; Backus, Joseph M. (1958). ""Each in its Ordered Place": Structure and Narrative in "Benjy's Section" of The Sound and the Fury". American Literature. 29 (4): 440–456. doi:10.2307/2922372. ISSN 0002-9831.
  • Toker, Leona (1988). "Diffusion of Information in "The Sound and the Fury"". College Literature. 15 (2): 111–135. ISSN 0093-3139.
  • Volpe, Edmond (1964). A Reader's Guide to William Faulkner. The Noonday Press.

Further reading

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  • Anderson, Deland (1990). "Through Days of Easter: Time and Narrative in The Sound and the Fury". Literature and Theology. 4 (3): 311–24. doi:10.1093/litthe/4.3.311.
  • Bleikasten, André. The Ink of Melancholy: Faulkner's Novels from The Sound and the Fury to Light in August. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990.
  • Bleikasten, André. The Most Splendid Failure: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1976.
  • Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country. New Haven: Yale UP, 1963.
  • Castille, Philip D. (1992). "Dilsey's Easter Conversion in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". Studies in the Novel. 24: 423–33.
  • Cowan, Michael H., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Sound and the Fury: A collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
  • Dahill-Baue, William (1996). "Insignificant Monkeys: Preaching Black English in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Beloved". Mississippi Quarterly. 49: 457–73.
  • Davis, Thadious M. Faulkner's "Negro": Art and the Southern Context. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1983.
  • Fleming, Robert E. (1992). "James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones as a Source for Faulkner's Rev'un Shegog". CLA Journal. 36: 24–30.
  • Gunn, Giles. "Faulkner's Heterodoxy: Faith and Family in The Sound and the Fury". Faulkner and Religion: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1989. Ed. Doreen Fowler and Ann J. Abadie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1991. 44–64.
  • Hagood, Taylor, ed. (2014). The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner. Critical Insights. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press.
  • Hagopian, John V. (1967). "Nihilism in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". Modern Fiction Studies. 13: 45–55.
  • Hein, David (2005). "The Reverend Mr. Shegog's Easter Sermon: Preaching as Communion in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". Mississippi Quarterly. 58: 559–80.
  • Howe, Irving. William Faulkner: A Critical Study. 3d ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1975.
  • Kartiganer, Donald M. The Fragile Thread: The Meaning of Form in Faulkner's Novels. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979.
  • Marshall, Alexander J., III. "The Dream Deferred: William Faulkner's Metaphysics of Absence". Faulkner and Religion: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 1989. Ed. Doreen Fowler and Ann J. Abadie. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1991. 177–192.
  • Matthews, John T. The Play of Faulkner's Language. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1982.
  • Matthews, John T. The Sound and the Fury: Faulkner and the Lost Cause. Boston: Twayne, 1991.
  • Palumbo, Donald (1979). "The Concept of God in Faulkner's Light in August, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, and Absalom, Absalom!". South Central Bulletin. 34 (4): 142–46. doi:10.2307/3188498. JSTOR 3188498.
  • Polk, Noel. "Trying Not to Say: A Primer on the Language of The Sound and the Fury". New Essays on The Sound and the Fury. Ed. Noel Polk. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. 139–175.
  • Radloff, Bernhard (1986). "The Unity of Time in The Sound and the Fury". The Faulkner Journal. 1: 56–68.
  • Rosenberg, Bruce A. (1969). "The Oral Quality of Rev. Shegog's Sermon in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht. 2: 73–88.
  • Ross, Stephen M. Fiction's Inexhaustible Voice: Speech and Writing in Faulkner. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1989.
  • Ross, Stephen M., and Noel Polk. Reading Faulkner: "The Sound and the Fury". Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1996.
  • Sartre, Jean-Paul. Patrick J. Hoffmann; Olga W. Vickery (eds.). William Faulkner; Three Decades of Criticism (PDF). New York: Harcourt. pp. 225–233. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 20, 2011.
  • Tredell, Nicholas, ed. (1999). William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury; As I Lay Dying (First ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12189-7. Retrieved August 28, 2009.
  • Sundquist, Eric J. Faulkner: The House Divided. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1983.
  • Urgo, Joseph R. "A Note on Reverend Shegog's Sermon in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury". NMAL: Notes on Modern American Literature 8.1 (1984): item 4.
  • Vickery, Olga W. The Novels of William Faulkner: A Critical Interpretation. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1964.
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Preceded by Novels set in Yoknapatawpha County Succeeded by
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