1. As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
An Introduction

2. Faulkner’s Unusual Format
As a leader of the Modernist Movement, Faulkner’s primary accomplishment is his use of experimental narration.
As I Lay Dying is told by 15 separate narrators, each telling his or her own version of the events, sometimes supporting and sometimes contradicting each other.

3. Faulkner’s Unusual Format
Hallmarks of Faulkner’s Technique
Shifting narration from one character to another
Stream-of-consciousness narration
Disruptions in standard chronology
Allowing the reader to put the story into some kind of coherent order
The variety and range of personalities make his “little postage stamp of native soil” representative of the entire human race.

4. Point of View
Scholars have pointed out that Faulkner may have been influenced by the Impressionist and Cubist painters – such as Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne – in his depiction of a truth that is very subjective and almost constantly evolving. Faulkner viewed and wrote home about the works of these artists on his visit to Paris in 1925.

5. Point of View
Certainly one can easily see the similarity of As I Lay Dying to Monet’s series of paintings of the same object, for example, haystacks and “Stacks of Wheat” or “The Cathedral of Rouen.” In these paintings and Faulkner’s novel, truth is, to a great degree, personal, relative and ever changing.

6. Faulkner and Monet
How did the Impressionist and Cubist painters – such as Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne – influence the work of William Faulkner?

7. View of the Roman Cathedral’s portal nowadays

8. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in morning light

9. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in morning light

10. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, harmony in blue and gold

11. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, harmony in blue and gold

12. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral and the tower d’Albane

13. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral at afternoon

14. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, the Portal on a grey day

15. The Portal of Rouen Cathedral, “le Portal vu de face”, harmony in brown

16. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Type of Work
Novel
Genre
Satire of heroic narrative; rural novel; comedy; tragedy
Tone
Varies from narrator to narrator to narrator: tragic, comic, calm, hysterical, emotional, detached
Setting
1920s, in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi

17. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Major Conflict
The members of the Bundren family trek across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother.
Source of the Title
Agamemnon’s speech to Odysseus in the Odyssey, Book XI
“As I lay dying the woman with the dog’s eyes would not close my eyes for me as I descended into Hades.”

18. Tips for Reading Faulkner
Be patient.
Be willing to re-read.
Focus on the characters.
Look for timeless tales.
Make the story your own.

19. Things to Look For
Characters often express conflicting opinions and contradicting sides to the same story.
Look for changes in typeface. When the text goes from normal to italic it indicates a shift in perspective or a character’s inner thoughts.

20. How to Read Faulkner If you get lost…
Check to see whose name is at the beginning of the chapter.
Go back to the last place you remember the story make sense and reread.
Ask yourself, “Where is Addie?”