In Faulkner's Imperialism, Taylor Hagood explores two staples of
Faulkner's world: myth and place. Using an interdisciplinary
approach to examine the economic, sociological, and political
factors in Faulkner's writing, he applies postcolonial theory,
cultural materialism, and the work of the New Southernists to
analyze the ways myth and place come together to encode narratives
of imperialism -- and anti-imperialism -- in the worlds in which
Faulkner lived and the one that he created. The resulting
discussion highlights the deeply embedded imperial impulses
underpinning not just Yoknapatawpha and Mississippi, but the
Midwest, the Caribbean, France, and a host of often-overlooked
corners of the Faulknerian map.
Faulkner defines space in his fiction by creating places through
culturally compelling narratives. Although these narrative spaces
often have imperial roots, Hagood reveals how the oppressed can
subvert these "mythic places" by turning the myths against their
oppressors. The Greco-Roman myths long recognized as part of
Faulkner's fictional world, for example, define racially hybrid
spaces ostensibly designed to articulate white patriarchal
narratives of imperial control but which actually carry within
their very dreams of Arcady an anti-imperial narrative. In
Faulkner's Mississippi Delta, which he modeled after the Nile
Delta, plantation owners evoke the imperial power of ancient Egypt
to confirm their own cultural ascendancy even while African
Americans use biblical narratives of the Israelites enslaved in
Egypt to speak against the power that controls them. Faulkner also
used places he personally experienced -- such as New Orleans, a
city that he recognized as containing multiple layers of imperial
design -- to dramatize the constant struggle between the oppressor
and the oppressed.
Rather than reading the roles of myth and place according to
conventional myth criticism or typical place models used by other
Faulkner scholars, Hagood examines the intertextuality within
Faulkner's writing, as well as the relationship of his writing to
others' work, in an attempt to understand how the texts fit
together and speak to one another. One of the few books that
examine Faulkner's work as a whole, Faulkner's Imperialism moves
beyond South-versus-North paradigms to encompass all the spaces
within Faulkner's created cosmos, considering their
interrelationships in a precise, holistic way.
General
Imprint: |
Louisiana State University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Southern Literary Studies |
Release date: |
November 2008 |
First published: |
November 2008 |
Authors: |
Taylor Hagood
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards / With dust jacket
|
Pages: |
264 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8071-3344-6 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-8071-3344-2 |
Barcode: |
9780807133446 |
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