William Faulkner, one of Americaās most iconic writers, is an author who defies easy interpretation. Born in 1897 in Mississippi, Faulkner wrote such classic novels as Absolom, Absolom! and The Sound and The Fury, creating in Yoknapatawpha county one of the most memorable gallery of characters ever assembled in American literature. Yet, as acclaimed literary critic Michael Gorra explains, Faulkner has sustained justified criticism for his failures of racial nuanceāhis ventriloquism of black characters and his rendering of race relations in a largely unreconstructed Southādemanding that we reevaluate the Nobel laureateās life and legacy in the twenty-first century, as we reexamine the junctures of race and literature in works that once rested firmly in the American canon.
Interweaving biography, literary criticism, and rich travelogue, The Saddest Words argues that even despite these contradictionsāand perhaps because of themāWilliam Faulkner still needs to be read, and even more, remains central to understanding the contradictions inherent in the American experience itself. Evoking Faulknerās biography and his literary characters, Gorra illuminates what Faulkner maintained was āthe Southās curse and its separate destiny,ā a class and racial system built on slavery that was devastated during the Civil War and was reimagined thereafter through the Southās revanchism. Driven by currents of violence, a āLost Causeā romanticism not only defined Faulknerās twentieth century but now even our own age.
Through Gorraās critical lens, Faulknerās mythic Yoknapatawpha County comes alive as his imagined land finds itself entwined in Americaās history, the characters wrestling with the ghosts of a past that refuses to stay buried, stuck in an unending cycle between those two saddest words, āwasā and āagain.ā Upending previous critical traditions, The Saddest Words returns Faulkner to his sociopolitical context, revealing the civil war within him and proving that āthe real war lies not only in the physical combat, but also in the war after the war, the war over its memory and meaning.ā
Filled with vignettes of Civil War battles and generals, vivid scenes from Gorraās travels through the Southāincluding Faulknerās Oxford, Mississippiāand commentaries on Faulknerās fiction, The Saddest Words is a mesmerizing work of literary thought that recontextualizes Faulkner in light of the most plangent cultural issues facing America today.
This book title, The Saddest Words (William Faulkner's Civil War), ISBN: 9781631491702, by Michael Gorra, published by Liveright (August 25, 2020) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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