William Faulkner: The Making of a Modernist (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) [Hardcover]

Daniel Joseph Singal (Author)

Book Description

Series: Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies | Publication Date: September 1997

Dan Singal, author of The War Within: From Victorian to Modernist Thought in the South brings a professional lifetime of researching, thinking and writing about the intellectual culture of the South to bear on the life and works of William Faulkner. Singal offers readers a bold and sweeping interpretation of Faulkner that is carefully wrought and persuasive. 8 illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Published on the centennial of its subject's birth (September 25, 1897), this wide-ranging but concisely written and easy-to-follow study by Singal (history, Hobart and William Smith Coll.) argues convincingly that Faulkner's artistic greatness lay in his ability gradually to liberate himself from the repressive and outmoded 19th-century Victorian culture into which he had been born and to accommodate his art to the modernism that was replacing it. Taking the reader from Soldier's Pay (1925) to The Mansion (1958), Singal shows the trajectory of Faulkner's conversion, from a rage for unity, stability, and the possibility of personal innocence to an acceptance of diversity, change, and immersion in the imperfect human condition. Interestingly, Singal also argues that Faulkner's increasingly debilitating alcoholism drove him (in such late work as The Reivers) back toward the safe Victorian culture from which he had so arduously freed himself. A thoughtful and thoroughgoing work; strongly recommended for all libraries.?Charles Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

In this persuasive intellectual biography, Singal makes sense of Faulkner's thought by viewing him as caught between the cultures of the Victorian and Modernist eras. In the centennial year of Faulkner's birth, Singal (History/Hobart and William Smith Colleges), opens with a subject he calls largely unexplored--``the structure and nature'' of Faulkner's thought. Singal believes the key to understanding lies in the ongoing ``conflict of cultures'' in which Faulkner lived-- the morally absolutist Victorianism of his rural gentry youth and the more fluid concepts of the Modernism of his adulthood. After examining the persuasive influence of Faulkner's proper Victorian mother and Civil War hero great-grandfather, Col. William C. Falkner, he turns to the novelist's early encounters with Modernism, beginning with Mosquitoes, with which the writer entered ``the darkened rooms and houses of southern history.'' Analyses of other novels follow, including Absalom, Absalom!, Light in August, and The Sound and the Fury, the latter representing Faulkner's ``Modernist authorial self'' taking hold (though, Singal believes, he never felt entirely at ease with Modernism), notably in the character of Benjy Compson, who repudiates the entire Victorian value system. While the book centers on textual analysis, Singal's forays into Faulkner's life ground the book and reveal the biographer's humanism and restraint. On the fact that Faulkner did not divorce wife Estelle to wed lover Meta Carpenter, Singal indicates an understanding of human connections, observing that ``despite mental and sometimes physical warfare, genuine bonds of loyalty and even affection still united the Faulkners, who after all had been tight childhood friends.'' Singal also chronicles Faulkner's lifelong excessive drinking with a refreshing mix of largesse and scientific fact, admitting the possibility of alcohol's early benefits in liberating Faulkner's artistic inhibitions but detailing the effects of alcohol misuse, giving credence to his claim that alcohol eventually diminished his talents. Written with calm authority and offering a plausible new thesis, this is a worthwhile introduction to the next century of Faulkner. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807823554
• ISBN-13: 978-0807823552
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,288,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and meandering, April 27, 1998

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S. Taylor "Random book junkie" (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Faulkner: The Making of a Modernist (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) (Hardcover)

Prof. Singal has an interesting thesis here, one well worth exploring, but his book needs more focus. Singal wanders from psychobiography (including some ill-fitting speculation into Faulkner's neurological problems!) to literary analysis to critiques of other Faulkner critics. Singal ends his study when it reaches the midpoint of Faulkner's career, essentially saying that Faulkner did not write anything interesting after 1942 or so--and while this well may be a valid opinion, asserting it without substantiating it is a cop-out. At times I felt I was reading the work of a talented undergrad rather than that of a tenured professor.

Readers interested in more rigorous studies of Faulkner's life and works should stick with Blotner's *Faulkner: A Biography*, Brooks's *WF: The Yoknapatawpha Country*, and Frederick Karl's relatively recent *WF: American Writer*.