AP LIT ~ MINICH FAULKNER HIGHLIGHTS
THINGS TO KNOW: Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950 Southern, fictitious county: Yoknapatawpha (inspired by Oxford, MS) Classic novels in the American canon: The Sound and the Fury (1929) As I Lay Dying (1930) Light in August (1932) Absalom, Absalom! (1936) Writings are regional (southern local history), but themes are broader: “The human heart in conflict with itself”
PRIMARY SUBJECT The idealized, genteel pre-Civil War south versus the broken, post-Civil War south These are often depicted through his characters: Emily Grierson: old south not wanting to let go, change / represented by her clinging to her ex-fiance’s (who wanted to move north) dead body Abner Snopes: new, broken, post-Civil War south Sarty Snopes: hope for a post-Civil War south to move forward, healing and healthy
POINT OF VIEW IN “BARN BURNING” 3 rd person omniscient blended with Sarty’s interior monologue (1 st person)