Lecture 14:
William Faulkner
(1897—1962)
Faulkner’s Works:
The Sound and the Fury
As I Lay Dying
Go Down, Moses
“A Rose for Emily”
“Barn Burning”
“That Evening Sun”
Faulkner’s Techniques:
a. multiple point of view: how characters react
differently to the same person or situation
b. stream-of-consciousness: telling a story by
recording the thoughts of a character
In 1950, Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for
literature.
His acceptance speech talks about the task of a
writer.
“A Rose for Emily”:
a. Why is Emily’s House the most
appropriate setting for the story?
b. Does the sex of the narrator affect
the telling of the story?
c. What is the disadvantage of taking
Emily as a symbol of the post-Civil-War
South?
“A Rose for Emily”:
 How do you explain Emily’s behavior?
 Discuss the ways in which Faulkner uses Miss
Emily’s house as an appropriate setting.
 Why does Faulkner use this particular narrator?
Is this narrator reliable? Does the fact he is male
matter?
 What is the writer’s attitude toward Emily?
“A Rose for Emily”:
 Many critics have read Miss Emily as a symbol
of the post-Civil-War South. Discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of adopting this
stance.
 How does this story handle the linked themes
of female oppression and empowerment? What
does it say about the various kinds of male-
female relationships in American society of this
period?
Homework:
For Week 15:
1. Reading Assignments:
Eugene O’Neill,
Desire Under the Elms
For Week 15:
2. Presentation topics:
a. What is the central conflict in the play?
b. What do the big elm trees symbolize?
c. How is the subject of “desire”
represented in the play? “Desire” over
what?
Week 16:
lecture on post-war literature
For Week 17:
1. Reading Assignments:
J. D. Salinger,
The Catcher in the Rye
For Week 17:
2. Group discussion topics:
a. symbol
What is the meaning of the title of the novel?
Where does it come from? How do you
understand it?
For Week 17:
2. Group discussion topics:
b. growth of a child
How do you understand the pain in the
growth of a child? What kind of experience
does he/she have to go through?
For Week 17:
2. Group discussion topics:
c. attitudes
What is Holden’s attitude towards museums
and the exhibits? What is his attitude towards
death?
For Week 17:
2. Group discussion topics:
d. childhood vs. adulthood
How is adulthood portrayed in the eyes of a
child? What are some of the words that Holden
uses frequently to describe the people around
him? What are their meanings?
For Week 17:
2. Group discussion topics:
e. journey as a motif
How do you comment on the journey that
Holden takes? Comment on the function of the
journey motif. (You may find it useful to
compare this novel with Mark Twain’s The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, or
other novels with the journey motif.