Sutpen's Design: Interpreting Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!
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- Synopsis
- From the prologue: "This book began in an undergraduate class on William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! Because the students kept referring to "Sutpen's design" without pausing to define it, I asked, "What, exactly, was Sutpen trying to do?" They gave the answers that I expected. They had, after all, read not only the novel but also some of the criticism; and they had accepted, as I had, the basic account that has been developed since Absalom was published in 1936. When I asked for evidence to back up their answers, the students pointed to passages that every critic would cite. Ordinarily, I would have accepted the citations; this time, to make the students defend their interpretations, I set out to challenge them-and discovered that the passages fail to support the interpretations. When they collapsed, my interpretation also collapsed; it stood on the same ground. So did all the criticism that I had read; it would also fall. Now, after surveying virtually all the criticism of Absalom, I have concluded that the account that forms the basis for that criticism is mistaken. This book argues that the account is flawed in two crucial ways. It misunderstands both what Sutpen is trying to do and how the narration works. As a result of the first misunderstanding the account fails to explain, for example, why Sutpen rejects Bon and what Sutpen hoped for in striving to complete his design. The second misunderstanding has led critics to see Absa lom as a web of hypothetical narratives that cannot be verified. Because the book's characters serve as narrators and are patently unreliable, critics have doubted that a trustworthy narrative can be derived from what we are given. I believe that the book's narrative technique reveals a way to authenticate the narrative. These ideas about Sutpen's design and about the narration lead to a detailed reinterpretation of Absalom."
- Copyright:
- 1990
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Excellent
- Book Size:
- 178 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780813912608
- Publisher:
- N/A
- Date of Addition:
- 06/08/07
- Copyrighted By:
- Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- Literature and Fiction, Language Arts
- Submitted By:
- Dr. Kenneth Cross
- Proofread By:
- RochC
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.