The saddest words : William Faulkner's Civil War
(Book)
Author
Published
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation,a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.
Status
Central - Adult Nonfiction
813 FAULKNE GORRA
2 available
813 FAULKNE GORRA
2 available
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Central - Adult Nonfiction | 813 FAULKNE GORRA | Available |
Central - Adult Nonfiction | 813 FAULKNE GORRA | Available |
Description
Loading Description...
More Details
Published
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation,a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
x, 433 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Language
English
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 381-407) and index.
Description
William Faulkner, one of America’s most iconic writers, is an author who defies easy interpretation. Born in 1897 in Mississippi, Faulkner wrote such classic novels as Absolom, Absolom! and The Sound and The Fury, creating in Yoknapatawpha county one of the most memorable gallery of characters ever assembled in American literature. Yet, as acclaimed literary critic Michael Gorra explains, Faulkner has sustained justified criticism for his failures of racial nuance―his ventriloquism of black characters and his rendering of race relations in a largely unreconstructed South―demanding that we reevaluate the Nobel laureate’s life and legacy in the twenty-first century, as we reexamine the junctures of race and literature in works that once rested firmly in the American canon. Interweaving biography, literary criticism, and rich travelogue, The Saddest Words argues that even despite these contradictions―and perhaps because of them―William Faulkner still needs to be read, and even more, remains central to understanding the contradictions inherent in the American experience itself. Evoking Faulkner’s biography and his literary characters, Gorra illuminates what Faulkner maintained was “the South’s curse and its separate destiny,” a class and racial system built on slavery that was devastated during the Civil War and was reimagined thereafter through the South’s revanchism. Driven by currents of violence, a “Lost Cause” romanticism not only defined Faulkner’s twentieth century but now even our own age. Through Gorra’s critical lens, Faulkner’s mythic Yoknapatawpha County comes alive as his imagined land finds itself entwined in America’s history, the characters wrestling with the ghosts of a past that refuses to stay buried, stuck in an unending cycle between those two saddest words, “was” and “again.” Upending previous critical traditions, The Saddest Words returns Faulkner to his sociopolitical context, revealing the civil war within him and proving that “the real war lies not only in the physical combat, but also in the war after the war, the war over its memory and meaning.” Filled with vignettes of Civil War battles and generals, vivid scenes from Gorra’s travels through the South―including Faulkner’s Oxford, Mississippi―and commentaries on Faulkner’s fiction, The Saddest Words is a mesmerizing work of literary thought that recontextualizes Faulkner in light of the most plangent cultural issues facing America today. --from Amazon.
Subjects
LC Subjects
African Americans in literature.
Faulkner, William, -- 1897-1962 -- Characters.
Faulkner, William, -- 1897-1962 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Race relations in literature.
Southern States -- In literature.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Literature and the war.
Yoknapatawpha County (Imaginary place)
Faulkner, William, -- 1897-1962 -- Characters.
Faulkner, William, -- 1897-1962 -- Criticism and interpretation.
Race relations in literature.
Southern States -- In literature.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Literature and the war.
Yoknapatawpha County (Imaginary place)
Also in this Series
Checking series information...
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Gorra, M. E. (2020). The saddest words: William Faulkner's Civil War (First edition.). Liveright Publishing Corporation,a division of W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Gorra, Michael Edward. 2020. The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War. Liveright Publishing Corporation,a division of W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Gorra, Michael Edward. The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War Liveright Publishing Corporation,a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Gorra, Michael Edward. The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War First edition., Liveright Publishing Corporation,a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2020.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
Staff View
Loading Staff View.