Absalom, Absalom

Published in 1936, William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! takes his favored subject–the legacy of slavery and the Civil War–and his imagined setting–Mississippi’s Yoknapatawpha County–to new heights of development. Set in the period before, during, and after the Civil War, it focuses on the life of Thomas Sutpen, an aspiring plantation owner and patriarch, and his descendants. Told though a series of narrators who are themselves struggling with the legacy of Faulkner’s South and the complexities of memory, Absalom, Absalom! explores many of the themes that are central to the author’s vision–plantation culture, race and racism, family dynastics, the Lost Cause, the nature of the modern South, the role of myth. One of the outstanding examples of literary modernism, what appeals to many readers, beyond the subject matter, is the art of Faulkner’s sentences, the architecture of his paragraphs, the dynamics of his narrative. Absalom, Absalom! is a difficult and rewarding work of art, one which comes from a specific time and place but continues to resonate with our contemporary world. Our goals for the seminar will be 1) to read this complex book well–with understanding and enjoyment; 2) to explore the contexts that lend meaning and significance to Faulkner’s novel; 3) to consider what makes such a novel –(“the best Southern novel of all time”)– “great.”

Text
Absalom,Absalom by William Faulkner, the corrected text (Vintage; Reissue edition (November 1, 1990))

Reading Schedule
for Week One Chapters 1&2
Week Two Chapters 3&4
Week Three Chapters 5&6
Week Four Chapters 7
Week Five Chapters 8&9

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