Document Type
Book
Publication Date
2010
Published In
Becoming Faulkner: The Art And Life Of William Faulkner
Abstract
William Faulkner was the greatest American novelist of the twentieth century, yet he lived a life marked by a pervasive sense of failure. Throughout his career, he remained haunted by his inability to master a series of personal and professional challenges: his less-than-heroic military career; the loss of his brother in an airplane crash; a disappointing stint as a Hollywood screenwriter; and a destructive bout with alcoholism. In this imaginative biography, Philip Weinstein--a leading authority on the great novelist--targets Faulkner's embattled sense of self as central to both his life and his work. Weinstein shows how Faulkner's troubled interactions with time, place, and history--with antebellum practices and racial division--take on their fullest meanings in his fiction. Exploring the resonance of his own unpreparedness, Faulkner invented a singular language that captured human consciousness under stress as never before. Becoming Faulkner joins Faulkner's life and art in a bold new way, giving readers a full vantage from which to better understand this twentieth-century literary genius.
Published By
Oxford University Press
Recommended Citation
Philip M. Weinstein. (2010). Becoming Faulkner: The Art And Life Of William Faulkner.
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-english-lit/85
Comments
This material was originally published in Becoming Faulkner: The Art And Life Of William Faulkner by Philip Weinstein, and has been reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. For permission to reuse this material, please visit http://global.oup.com/academic/rights.