1. William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

2. William Faulkner ( ) “My requirements for writing: paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky”
Grew up in Oxford Mississippi in a long-established Mississippi family
Uncle a colonel in the Confederate army
Family’s roots in the Old South furnish him with settings, themes, and cultural identity for sixteen novels and many short stories
His work is decidedly southern

3. Faulkner’s Writing Began writing after he was in WWI
Won both Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize
Created Yoknapatawpha County: a fictional place in MI
A microcosm of the American South both Ante-bellum and Post-bellum

4. Fictional Yoknapatawpha County
Although Fictional, Faulkner gave it credibility, supplying a physical place and a census count
Location used in several of his novels
Near the real Yocona River in Mississippi

5. Crossing the Yocona River in 1900

6. The American South and As I Lay Dying
The loss of the Civil War shaped the mentality and outlook of all southerners
In Faulkner’s writing, the history of the south is a tragedy which must be addressed
The novel asks: How do people deal with devastation and degeneration in their lives?
Like the death of a loved one, a mother or wife, war also causes immense upheaval
The novel is not about the Civil War; rather it is about the manner in which people deal with adversity in their lives: it is about the Human Experience

7. Faulkner’s Style in As I Lay Dying
Written in stream of consciousness form
Reader “hears” a character’s thoughts
Faulkner never directly comments, describes, or explains
Novel comprised of 59 monologues by 15 different characters
Dream-like writing: often disjointed, distorted, and seemingly illogical
Readers must piece the story together in a puzzle-like fashion
Tale of a journey: nothing impedes the straightforward movement of plot to its destination-Jefferson and the burial of Addie