Faulkner's Stylistic Difficulty: a Formal Analysis of Absalom, Absalom!

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Faulkner's Stylistic Difficulty: a Formal Analysis of Absalom, Absalom! Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 12-14-2017 Faulkner's Stylistic Difficulty: Aormal F Analysis of Absalom, Absalom! Eric Sandarg Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Sandarg, Eric, "Faulkner's Stylistic Difficulty: Aormal F Analysis of Absalom, Absalom!." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2017. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/189 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FAULKNER’S STYLISTIC DIFFICULTY: A FORMAL ANALYSIS OF ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by ERIC SANDARG Under the Direction of Pearl McHaney, Ph.D. ABSTRACT The complex prose of Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, marked by lengthy sentences and confusing punctuation, resonates on both a rhetorical and an aesthetic level that earlier critics failed to recognize. INDEX WORDS: William Faulkner; Absalom, Absalom!; punctuation; syntax; diction; prose poetry; parentheses; sentences; repetition; Faulknerese. i ii FAULKNER’S STYLISTIC DIFFICULTY: A FORMAL ANALYSIS OF ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by ERIC SANDARG A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2017 iii Copyright by Eric Sandarg 2017 iv FAULKNER’S STYLISTIC DIFFICULTY: A FORMAL ANALYSIS OF ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by ERIC SANDARG Committee Chair: Pearl McHaney Committee: Malinda Snow Randy Malamud Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University December 2017 v iv DEDICATION I invoked no muse for inspiration while composing this work; my two principal sources of motivation were decidedly sublunary but nonetheless helpful beyond description: Dr. James Kibler of the University of Georgia and Dr. Pearl McHaney of Georgia State University. I humbly dedicate this dissertation to the two of them. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Aspiring to produce something even close to a trenchant analysis of a novel as abstruse as Absalom, Absalom! is certainly a feat in itself; justifying it as a worthwhile endeavor is even more difficult. In this dissertation I have attempted to illuminate the novel’s lasting importance, enrich our understanding of how it is quintessentially modernist, and forge new directions for future research in the area of Faulkner studies. I am deeply indebted to several generations of literary critics and scholars, far too numerous to be individually recognized here, without whose previous studies on this subject this project would not have come to fruition. I would like to express my gratitude to three scholars in particular who helped make this dissertation what it is: Dr. Randy Malamud, for his valuable insight regarding literary modernism; Dr. Malinda Snow, for her keen awareness of style and grammar; and most of all Dr. Pearl McHaney, for her support, guidance, and unwavering patience throughout the writing process. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. 1 PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... 4 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 5 1.1 The Critical Reception of Absalom, Absalom! .................................................. 7 1.2 Faulkner and Modernist Literature ................................................................ 21 2 THE ENDLESS SENTENCE .................................................................................. 34 2.1 Faulkner’s Tortu(r)ous Sentences ................................................................... 35 2.2 Constructing a Faulknerian Sentence ............................................................. 40 2.3 Syntactic Tension............................................................................................... 50 2.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 61 3 SORTING THROUGH THE TANGLED WEB OF PARENTHESES .............. 63 3.1 Memory and the Constructed Nature of the Past .......................................... 65 3.2 How Parentheses Function in the Novel .......................................................... 72 3.3 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 86 4 OTHER FUNCTIONS OF “FAULKNERESE” .................................................... 87 4.1 The Essence of Faulkner’s Prose ..................................................................... 89 4.2 “Faulknerese” and the Sublime ....................................................................... 97 4.3 Southern Identity ............................................................................................ 107 4.4 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 111 2 5 THE “FAILED POET” RETURNS: ABSALOM, ABSALOM! AS PROSE POETRY .................................................................................................................... 113 5.1 Faulkner the Poet ............................................................................................ 116 5.2 Prose Poetry ..................................................................................................... 118 5.3 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 137 6 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 138 WORKS CITED............................................................................................................ 144 3 PREFACE Composing a dissertation, it seems to me, is not unlike birthing and raising a child. A spark of conception forms the idea in the writer’s mind, and a gestation period ensues; this is followed by the birth—the highly vaunted completion of the prospectus—which is delivered with the assistance not of a midwife but of an office printer. From here the writer patiently watches the growth of his work, however unsteady, as it matures from infancy through adolescence and experiences the accompanying growing pains along way. As chapters slowly begin to take form, as paragraphs are finalized and lines punctiliously edited and proofread, the dissertation strives toward adulthood, its groans and pleas heeded by none except its author and the members of the dissertation committee. The completion of the dissertation marks its full maturity, at which point its author, like any proud parent, marvels in wonder at his creation. 4 1 INTRODUCTION Faulkner wrote as if there were no literature written in English be- fore him, no century and more of convention and literary tradition established before he put pen to paper. - M. Thomas Inge1 No other contemporary American novelist of comparable stature has been as frequently or as severely criticized for his style as has William Faulkner. - Warren Beck2 Critics have quibbled over William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! since its publication in 1936. Known for a richly complicated style that involves multiple narrators, sprawling sentences, numerous neologisms, and a compulsive use of punctuation, the novel has confounded scholars and lay readers alike, providing a nearly endless supply of material to discuss. Those who have focused on the stylistic aspects of Absalom, Absalom! tend to congregate at opposite ends of the spectrum. The (rather few) sympathetic critics include Michael Millgate, who refers to the book as “the most carefully articulated of Faulkner’s novels” (The Achievement of William Faulkner 150) and hails it as “a work of technical virtuosity” (Faulkner 52); John T. Matthews, who lauds it as Faulkner’s “most accomplished” work (115); Robert Dale Parker, an admirer of its “masterful language” (11); and Cleanth Brooks, for whom it is “in many respects the most brilliantly written of all Faulkner’s novels” (William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country 323). Most other critics have taken a decidedly unsympathetic stance. They have variously described the book’s prose as “annoying” (Aiken 651), “distracting” (Crawford, Kern, and Needleman 129), “overloaded” (Berthoff 431), “dilatory” (Longstreet 49), “obscure” (Riedel 1 William Faulkner, p. 1. New York: Duckworth, 2006. Print. 2 “William Faulkner’s Style,” p. 195. American Prefaces (1941): 195-211. Print. 5 462), “blurred” (Paterson 39), “incoherent” (Scott 96), “perplexing” (Slatoff 113) “congested” (Day-Lewis 216), “contorted” (Aswell 93), “frenzied” (Parker 7), “ungrammatical” (Kazin 462), “unbearable” (Howe 221), and “tortuous” (Rahv 209).3 Despite such polarization, most critics nowadays agree that the difficult writing style—no matter how demanding on the reader—in some way conveys meaning by supporting, enhancing, or otherwise contributing to particular themes expressed in the novel. Absalom, Absalom! recounts the rise of Thomas Sutpen, a ruthlessly ambitious man of the nouveau riche who unsuccessfully endeavors to establish a respected dynasty in
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