For decades now literary critics have universally praised Faulkner as one of the greatest writers of the modern era, yet students assigned to read his novels in university, college, and high school classes continue to struggle to make sense of his convoluted plots, prolix style, and complex characterizations. The broadest treatment to date of a topic of increasing concern, this book is designed to provide fresh strategies and practical suggestions for the classroom study of several of Faulkner's finest novels and stories, including The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, Light in August, The Unvanquished, and Go Down, Moses.
The contributors, all noted Faulkner scholars who regularly teach Faulkner works in their courses, employ a variety of critical theories and approaches. In each chapter, theory is subordinated to tested classroom methods that both motivate and assist students in reading the texts and in understanding why Faulkner remains relevant for contemporary readers. The teaching strategies described in this book draw upon such diverse matters as cultural and social analysis, historical context, reading and rhetorical theory, film and stage techniques, comparative studies, and race, class, and gender issues.
Table of Contents:
Introduction by Stephen Hahn and Robert W. Hamblin
Why Faulkner?
When the Dancing Mind Meets Inquiring Minds: The Nobel Profession in Practice by Theresa M. Towner
"No Longer at Ease Here":Faulkner in the New Millennium by Philip M. Weinstein
Why I, a Woman of Color from India, Enjoy Teaching William Faulkner by Rajini Srikanth
Approaches and Methods
Tracing Racial Assumptions: Teaching "That Evening Sun" by Doreen Fowler
"Handy" Ways to Teach "That Evening Sun" by Charles A. Peek
"Who Says What About Whom to Whom?": Teaching the Fourth Section of The Sound and The Fury by Stephen Hahn
"Words That Don't Fit":As I Lay Dying and Gracilianos Ramos's Barren Lives by Catarina Edinger
Faulkner, Cather, and "Lost Ladies" by Mary McAleer Balkun
"The Invention of Sunday": Eloquence and Counter-Eloquence in Light in August by James D. Bloom
Entering the Dark House: Teaching Absalom, Absalom! through Citizen Kane by John N. Duvall
Teaching The Unvanquished by Veronica Makowsky and Bradley Johnson
Reading Faulkner Pragmatically: The Hamlet and Willam James by David H.Evans
Teaching Go Down Moses: Was,Faulkner's "Nigger Stories," and Now by Arthur F. Kinney
Teaching "The Bear" as an Artifact of Frontier Mythology by Peter Alan Froehlich
Teaching Intruder in the Dust through Its Political and Historical Context by Robert W. Hamblin
"The Sum of Your Ancestry":Cultural Context and Intruder in the Dust by Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber
The Drama of Teaching Requiem for a Nun by Christopher LaLonde
Teaching Faulkner's "Case Histories" by David L. Vanderwerken
Coda
Tense Unresolve:Ending a Course on Faulkner by Terrell L. Tebbetts
About the Author :
STEPHEN HAHN is Professor of English and Associate Provost at William Paterson University. With Arthur F. Kinney, he is co-editor of Approaches to Teaching Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury (1996). His articles have appeared in such periodicals as The Faulkner Journal, College Composition and Communication, and Teaching Faulkner.
ROBERT W. HAMBLIN is Professor of English and Director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. He is coeditor, with Charles A. Peek, of A William Faulkner Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 1999) and, with Louis Daniel Brodsky, of the five-volume Faulkner: A Comprehensive Guide to the Brodsky Collection (1982-88).
