美国文学 作家 威廉·福克纳.ppt

William Faulkner 1897－1962 His life and writing His major works Yoknapatawpha County as the setting His thematic pattern His narrative techniques His language His life and writing Faulkner is the most powerful and eloquent representative of American Southern writers. American Southern writers mainly write about the history, customs, people and social change of the American South, a region that contains much beauty, violence, passion, courage and, finally tragedy. It was from the regions characteristics that Faulkner drew the material for most of his fiction. Southern Literature I. HeritageAmerican southern literature can date back to Edgar Allen Poe, and reach its summit with the appearance of the two “giants” – Faulkner and Thomas Wolfe. There are southern women writers – Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor. II. Southern Myths – guilt, failure, poverty1. Chevalier heritage2. Agrarian virtue3. Plantation aristocracy4. Lost cause5. White supremacy6. Purity of womanhood Southern literature: twisted, pessimistic, violent, distortedGothic novel: Poe born in New Albany, Mississippi and raised in nearby Oxford, and lived there almost all his life. left school in his teens and later studied as a special student at the Uni. of Mississippi. Fond of literature, he was increasingly motivated to become a writer. In 1918, he enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps. Later he travelled Europe and learned the experimental writing of James Joyce and of the ideas of Sigmund Freud. He died of a heart attack in Oxford, Mississippi. literary career: three stages (1) 1924~1929: training as a writer? The Marble Faun? Soldier’s Pay? Mosquitoes(2) 1929~1936: most productive and prolific period? Sartoris? The Sound and the Fury? As I Lay Dying? Light in August? Absalom, Absalom!(3) 1940~end: won recognition in America? Go Down, Moses His major works a volume of poetry The Marble Faun (1924) first novel Soldiers Pay (1926) S