The Mythic Conquest of Time in Faulkner's Fiction

<p>William Faulkner is famous for stating he agrees with Henri Bergson's optimistic philosophy of time, a philosophy that emphasizes human freedom and action precisely as they relate to time. However, many of Faulkner's characters are defined by their stagnant and lethargic personalities which cannot change; these characters are held immobile by an over – identification with the rich history of their mythic, southern past. This paper, through in depth explorations of Faulkner's masterpieces, Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and The Fury seeks to consider human mythmaking as the key to understanding Faulkner's difficult works. This critical approach allows us to better understand these works as conflicts between diachronic (linear or "normal") time and synchronic time (mythological or circular) time or more simply conflicts between the brute, inexorable world of fact and the human, meaning making world that is often a specious undermining of reality and change.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• David, William M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Malmgren, Carl
• Lackey, Kris
• Hazlett, John

• William Faulkner
• Absalom, Absalom!
• The Sound and The Fury
• Mythopoesis
• Henri Bergson
• the philosophy of time
• Literature in English, North America

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1420

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-2511